Archive from 2012

Lin lifts his way to title

Lin Qingfeng went some way to restoring China's reputation as the major power in Weightlifting after taking Olympic gold in the men's 69kg competition. China dominated proceedings on home soil four years ago, winning eight of the 15 golds on offer at Beijing 2008. But their position has been firmly challenged at London 2012, with China, DPR Korea and Kazakhstan each taking two golds from the first six on offer at ExCeL while the men's team were yet to stand on top of the winners' podium before today. But all that changed after Lin comprehensively took the field apart with a total of 344kg, with silver going to Indonesia's Triyatno (333kg) and Romania's 20-year-old Razvan Constantin Martin clinching bronze

Golden day for Maneza

Maiya Maneza turned the women's 63kg into a personal pursuit for Olympic and world records after clinching Weightlifting gold for Kazakhstan. All the talk going into the competition was of a duel between Maneza and Russia's Svetlana Tsarukaeva, with the two lifters going head-to-head for the previous three world championships. Tsarukaeva led at the interval after a snatch of 112kg compared to Maneza's 110kg, but the Russian's clean and jerk predictably let her down and 125kg (total 237kg) was only enough for silver. Maneza clinched gold with her first clean and jerk attempt at 135kg - equalling the Olympic record - before she set about trying to take her own world record of 143kg. Two failed lifts at 144kg meant it was not to be, but a 245kg total was enough for another Olympic record. Canada's Christine Girard (236kg) edged bronze ahead of Turkey's Sibel Simsek, making up for her agonising fourth place at the 2008 Beijing

KIM Un Guk (PRK)

Men’s 62kg “When I lift, I want to lift up the

LI Xueying (CHN)

Women’s 58kg “It's true that yesterday our teammates didn't have their best performance. However I was not affected by their performances because I know we are a very strong

Records tumble as Kim takes gold

Kim Un Guk triumphed to win gold in style for DPR Korea in an exciting men's 62kg Weightlifting competition which saw Olympic and world weightlifting records tumble. The pre-competition build-up was dominated by talk of a duel between Kim and Chinese rival Zhang Jie, with the duo sparring for world titles over the last two years. But Zhang was pushed into fourth place as in-form Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosquera, from Columbia, took silver ahead of Indonesia's Irawan Eko Yuli on a lighter bodyweight after tying with their final totals. Kim followed up a snatch of 153kg, which broke the Olympic record and equalled the world best, with a clean and jerk of 174kg, providing him with a stunning personal best total of 327, which also eclipsed both records. The Olympic record for clean and jerk also fell at ExCeL as Figueroa Mosquera lifted 177kg to help rack up a total of 317kg, level with Eko Yuli, who had to settle for bronze again after doing so four years ago. Fourth-placed Zhang also saw his total world record sent crashing by rival

Impressive Li claims gold

China's Li Xueying produced an impressive display to claim Olympic Games gold in the Women's 58kg Weightlifting division. Li recorded a winning total of 246kg, with Thailand's Pimsiri Sirikaew finishing second (236kg) narrowly ahead of Yuliya Kalina, from Ukraine, who claimed the bronze (235kg). Great Britain's Zoe Smith finished 12th, setting a new GB clean-and-jerk record (121kg) and new personal best total (211kg) in her first taste of Games