Sensational Om eclipses favourite
Om Yun Chol claimed gold in sensational style after double world champion and pre-competition favourite Wu Jingbiao failed to make his last lift in a thrilling finale to the men’s Weightlifting 56kg category.
Amazingly, Om, from DPR Korea, triumphed from the morning’s B group – supposedly for second-tier lifters – and was present in the stands to watch China’s Wu fall agonisingly short.
Om, only the fifth man in history to lift triple his own body weight, put in a sensational performance as he equalled the world record and set a new Olympic best in the clean and jerk element (168kg).
His overall total of 293kg was four kilos more than managed by Wu (289kg), who had to settle for silver, with fellow A group lifter Valentin Hristov, 18, claiming bronze – a first-ever weightlifting Olympic Games medal for Azerbaijan.
Source: London 2012
