American Cummings Jr breaks own world U-17 record

Clarence Cummings Jr continued his fine form by rewriting his world Under-17 record in the men’s 69kg event at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Youth World Weightlifting Championships.

The 16-year-old American lifted 182kg in the clean and jerk at the SPICE Arena here yesterday to erase his own 180kg record set at the 2016 Junior World Weightlifting Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia, in June. The junior world meet is an Under-20 competition.

Cummings Jr also equalled his world record of 317kg set in Tbilisi for the 69kg event’s total score.

To top off a fine day, he also swept the gold in the snatch with a 135kg lift.

Iran’s Hossein Soltani won the overall silver with a 295kg finish, a whopping 22kg behind Cummings Jr’s total. Ferhat Yazici of Turkey took the bronze with 291kg.

Malaysia’s Muhammad Erry Hidayat finished 11th out of the 22 lifters with a 257kg total (116kg in the snatch and 141kg in the clean and jerk).

In the men’s 62kg, Uzbek Adkhamjon Ergashev staved off a strong challenge from China’s Wei Yunban to secure the overall gold.

The 17-year-old Ergashev and 15-year-old Wei Yunban had split the snatch and the clean and jerk gold medals between them. But the Uzbek took the overall title with a 280kg finish, 3kg more than Wei Yunban’s total.

Malaysia’s 15-year-old Nur Hannis Abu Bakar finished a dismal 21st out of 22 lifters with a 215kg total.

In the women’s 53kg, China’s Yu Mengqian recovered from the setback of missing out on a podium finish in the snatch to capture the overall and the clean and jerk golds.

The 16-year-old could only secure fourth placing with a 77kg effort in the snatch. The top three – Yenny Torres of Colombia, Ukraine’s Kamila Konotop and Thailand’s Surodchana Khambao – all successfully lifted 78kg. The medal places were determined by bodyweight, with Torres winning the gold by virtue of being the lightest.

Yu Mengqian bounced back strongly to win the clean and jerk gold with 105kg, 4kg more than second-placed Torres. The Chinese’s 182kg total was 3kgmore than Torres’ efforts, with Surodchana taking the overall bronze with 178kg.

Malaysia’s Cascandra Elly finished 11th out of the 14 lifters with a 153kg total after managing 68kg in the snatch and 85kg in the clean and jerk.