WANG ZHOUYU was crowned the Olympic champion in women’s 87kg weightlifting event at the Tokyo International Forum yesterday after an impressive total lift of 270kg.

This is the sixth Olympic gold in weightlifting for People’s Republic of China at Tokyo 2020.

Wang swept both the snatch and clean and jerk categories dominating the field from the start. She lifted 120kg in her third attempt in snatch, and 150kg in her second attempt in clean and jerk — which catapulted her to the top of the podium to win gold in her Olympic debut.

Not content with being the leader of the pack, the Chinese athlete — who also holds three gold titles at the 2019 IWF World Cup — also tried to lift 158kg today in her final attempt in clean and jerk but unfortunately couldn’t hoist it up to make a new Olympic record.

Wang, who was originally competing at 72kg but switched to 87kg two years ago, described her Olympic journey and today’s performance.

“Since then [two years ago] my biggest hurdle was the problem of kilos. ‘How can I train myself to gain weight and to be in a higher kilo category?’ I have to be steady and gain weight and be stronger in whatever platform I want to display my strength,” the 27-year-old athlete said.

“Today I was not that satisfied with my performance because I hoped to lift 10 kilos more,” before adding, “I want to congratulate my two opponents but today I lost against myself,” she added.

“We want to first display China’s strength — the Chinese athletes and each of them are here for the gold medal. But I thank my opponents because together we can fight to improve and progress.”(SD-Agencies)