China’s Shi sets new world record, wins 73kg final

TOKYO: Just an Olympic gold medal? Not enough for Shi Zhiyong.

He set the first weightliting world record of the Tokyo Olympics as he easily won the gold in the men’s 73-kilogram category Wednesday, and said victory alone wouldn’t have satisfied him.

“What makes it exciting is not to get the gold medal, it’s to break my own record. So that means a lot for me,” Shi said through an interpreter. “If I didn’t manage to break my own record, just to get a gold medal, I would feel regret.”

Shi lited a total 364 kilograms to break his own world record by one kilogram and win gold for China for the second consecutive Olympics. It was barely a contest for the gold medal as second-place Julio Mayora of Venezuela lited 19kg less. Assured of silver for his country’s first medal in Tokyo, Mayora added his own flourish with a failed atempt to break Shi’s record of 198kg for the clean and jerk, then signed off the competition with a backflip on stage.

The five Chinese liters who have competed so far in Tokyo have four gold medals and a silver.

There was a rare sight in weightliting as Indonesia’s Rahmat Erwin Abdullah took bronze despite liting several hours earlier in the “B” group for competitors who have registered lower starting weights. “B” liters are typically a footnote at the Olympics, but Abdullah stuck around for the evening session as beter-known competitors tried and failed to match his 342kg total.

“The only thing I do is just praying,” he said, adding that he was inspired by his father, who was in line to lit for Indonesia at the 2004 Olympics but was sidelined by injury.

Abdullah’s surprisingly high total from the earlier session seemed to cause confusion for some medal contenders. His name and his total weren’t shown on the screens in the arena alongside the “A” competitors, even though it counted for places. Some liters and their coaches revised their chosen weights for lits apparently because they hadn’t initially taken Abdullah into account.

CJ Cummings had a shot at being the first men’s weightliting medalist for the United States since 1984 but it was an uphill struggle ater what he called a “terrible” snatch part of the contest. Cummings had a shot at bronze when he attempted a world-record 198kg in the clean and jerk but couldn’t finish the lit.

“I’m not done. This is a learning experience and I just have to learn from this competition and grow,” the former world junior champion told The Associated Press. “I’ve got plenty more in me.”