Indian weightlifters continued with their listless display at the Asian Games as K. Ravi Kumar and Punam Yadav failed to impress in their respective men’s and women’s events here on Tuesday.
Ravi Kumar failed to find a place in Group ‘A’ of the men’s 77kg category and ended up competing in Group ‘B’.
Although he finished second in Group ‘B’, Ravi Kumar has no chance of making the podium.
Silver medallist at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Ravi Kumar lifted a total of 313kg after an effort of 141kg in snatch and 172kg in clean and jerk.
In women’s 63kg division, Punam, who had bagged a bronze medal at CWG, finished a lowly seventh in the field of nine lifters.
She could lift an overall 200kg (90+110) even as the gold medallist in her category lifted 261kg to create a world record.
Lin breaks records Chinese Taipei’s Lin Tzu-chi broke two world records with her final lift to snatch gold away from China’s Deng Wei in the women’s 63kg.
In another extraordinary afternoon at the Moonlight Gardens weightlifting arena in Incheon, world records were erased no less than four times as Lin and Deng fought out a titanic battle.
Lin took the lead with a clean and jerk lift of 143kg for a 259kg aggregate which smashed the old world record of 257kg set back in 2007.
Then Deng then strode out and hoisted a world record 144kg clean and jerk, to equal Lin’s total and go into gold medal position by virtue of lower bodyweight.
Lin, with one lift remaining, somehow then hauled 145kg above her head to condemn Deng to silver and set more world records for both the clean and jerk and the combined (261kg) in the process.
Lin, the 2013 Asian champion, had started the competition as favourite with Deng, a world champion at 58kg last year, regarded as an unknown quantity at 63kg after stepping up in weight.
Deng put any doubts that she would prosper in bigger company to bed with a stunning series of lifts as the North Korean challenge for once fell short with Jo Pok-Hyang filling the last podium place way behind on 247kg.
Lyu triumphs Meanwhile, China’s world and Olympic champion Lyu Xiaojun staved off the biggest upset of the weightlifting so far when he summoned up one final glorious golden lift.
Leading comfortably after his Games record snatch of 175kg, just 1kg off his world record, Lyu incredibly failed twice after opting for a huge opening weight of 200kg in the clean and jerk, and seemed to be suffering with his back, and his confidence.
One more failure would have meant elimination for the favourite and North Korea's Kim Kwang-Song would have stolen gold.
Kim and his coaches gathered round screens backstage to watch Lyu’s do-or-die effort as tension mounted in the Moonlight Gardens weightlifting arena in Incheon.
With everyone holding his breath, Lyu hoisted the bar to his shoulders, but as he attempted the second part of the lift he sunk on his haunches and it looked like the game was up.
But he held on grimly and with gritted teeth and a cry of anguish he found the strength to slowly, desperately, straighten his legs and arms and complete the lift to a standing ovation and wild cheers from the incredulous crowd.
Even the North Korean delegates rose to their feet and applauded what was undeniably the greatest feat of sheer determination witnessed in four days of competition.
