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Surprise in men’s 94kg – no surprise in women’s 75kg

A very close race was in sight in the 94kg where all 11 lifters in Group A represented a similarly high standard. Accordingly, the competition was full of turns and surprises, whereby top favourite, 85-kg world champion OKULOV Artem (RUS) soon left the scene with a lowly result and taking only 3 attempts in all, due to a 2-weeks old injury. Two Lithuanian competitors, DIDZBALIS Aurimas (Olympic bronze) and STANULIS Zygimantas vied for the top positions but these were eventually captured by the surprise man of the category, KLIMONOV Egor of Russia, confidently beating Kazakhstan’s SYBAY Rustem by one kilo on total (383kg – 382kg). In third place, another unexpected athlete: Rio 4th SUMPRADIT Sarat of Thailand.

In contrast to the men’s 94kg, the ladies’ 75kg category revealed significant differences between the contenders. The biggest gap could be noted between Olympic champion from PRK, RIM Jong Sim and the rest of the field. RIM did not disappoint and started both movements when all the others have done their jobs. In snatch, RIM finished with 120kg, 3 kilos short of the Universiade record, and in the jerk she left no doubt about her dominance, totalling a comfortable 260kg, 20 kilos more than the next best.  Behind her, TPE YAO Chi-Ling was fighting hard to please the spectators but in the end had to settle for bronze, ceding the silver to NAUMAVA Darya of Belarus.