Four years after settling for a silver medal in the women’s 53kg weightlifting competition, Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Shu-Ching won gold in the weight class Sunday afternoon.
Shu-Ching lifted a combined weight of 212kg in the snatch and clean and jerk lifts, which established a new Olympic record for the event. That number doesn’t approach the world record of 233kg, which Shu-Ching set at the Asian Games two years ago, but it was more than enough to win Chinese Taipei its first-ever weightlifting gold medal.
Winning silver was Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines, whose medal is the first medal for her nation in either men’s or women’s weightlifting. South Korea’s Yoon Jin Hee, who won a silver medal in this event in Beijing eight years ago, won the bronze medal.
China’s Li Yajun established a new Olympic record in the snatch with a lift of 101kg, but she failed to register a lift in the clean and jerk portion of the competition.
