León, Day 2: World records for sensational Chen, and Olympic medallist Morris leads a 1-2 finish for USA
Chen Guan-Ling, the senior world champion from Chinese Taipei, and the American Olympic medallist Hampton Morris were in dominant form on day two of the World Junior Championships in León. Chen claimed a sweep of junior world records when she made all six lifts in a superb performance in the women’s 55kg. Her nearest rival was 25kg behind, and her total was 14kg more than she made in winning the senior world title in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia a year ago. Chen Guan-Ling (TPE) Morris finished 13kg clear of his team-mate Gabe Chhum at 61kg despite failing with his final two clean and jerks, one of which was a world record attempt. He is looking forward to spending some time in Spain at the end of a busy two years. When Chen was posing for photos after the medal ceremony, the IWF president Mohammed Jalood stopped to congratulate her and say, “You will be the next Kuo.” He was referring to Kuo Hsing-Chun, Chinese Taipei’s greatest weightlifter who won Olympic gold, five World Championships and set 11 world records in her stellar career. Chen gratefully accepted the compliment. When asked if Kuo had been a big influence, though, she said, “Not really. We trained in different places and I didn’t work with her. “I have been through many injuries, then there were other ups and downs. It was the support of family and friends that helped me through, and I have been training well for this. “My target was to set world records here, and it will be the same in Bahrain (at the senior World Championships in December).” Chen became senior world champion with a total of 203kg last year, when she was 19. She bettered that by 1kg at the Asian Championships in Uzbekistan in February, but finished 23kg behind Kang Hyon Gyong, one of PRK’s 11 winners there. In making 98-119-217 today, Chen showed that she can give Kang a close contest in Bahrain. Her preliminary entry total for December is 204kg, which until today was her competition best. “It will go up,” Chen said. “Yes, 204 was my best but I was making more in training. Not this much more though!” Gelen Torres (COL) Gelen Torres from Colombia, last year’s youth world champion at this weight, improved her career best by 10kg when she was second on 89-103-192. The European senior champion Aleksandra Grigoryan from Armenia failed to overtake Torres when she missed her final attempt on 112kg, and finished third on 81-110-191. Yusa Sato from Japan, fourth on total, took clean and jerk bronze, and fifth-placed Jhodie Peralta from the Philippines, who will be 15 in November, won snatch bronze. Celine Delia from Italy, who was second to Grigoryan at the European seniors, missed the competition because of an overnight fever. Hampton Morris (USA) Morris made a winning exit from the junior ranks in the evening session, in which he achieved his main goal of winning another world title. He was 17 when he made his first appearance in a junior competition in July 2021, the year when he won major youth, junior and senior titles. In the 38 months between his first and last junior outings Morris won three age-group world titles, three Pan American senior golds, and set nine world records – one senior, five junior and three youth. To crown it all, last month in Paris he became the first American man to win an Olympic weightlifting medal since the 1980s. All this in the 61kg category, which has long been dominated by Asian athletes. Having achieved all this, Morris did not need to travel to Spain for another junior championships, especially after such a busy time in the Olympic qualifying period. None of the other Paris medallists young enough to lift here bothered to enter. “I wanted to come here to be with this team one last time,” said Morris, who will be 21 in February. “I wanted one more experience with these amazing people I’ve made relationships with over the past few years. “I was also very excited to come to Spain. I’m staying on to watch the rest of the team, and I’m really looking forward to trying Spanish food.” Morris made 126-165-291. When he came out for his first clean and jerk on 165kg everybody else had finished. He made that one but missed at 171kg and a world record attempt at 177kg. Gabe Chhum (USA) Silver medallist Gabe Chhum has a punishing lifestyle while he is pursuing two careers, one as an international weightlifter and the other as an aircraft engineer. “Working, training, competing and resting just about sums up my life, with room for just the tiniest bit of social life,” said Chhum, 20, who won the junior world title at this weight last year when Morris lifted at 67kg. His long-term goal is to compete at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. “I want to be an engineer so I’m not going to quit. I want to prove that you can have a high-level job and still be a successful weightlifter. I’ve been living like this for three years. I like it.” Chhum’s 125-153-278 from four good lifts was a 5kg improvement on his best international total, and 2kg shy of his best in a domestic meet. Elsayed Aly from Egypt, who was second behind Chhum at last year’s World Juniors, took third on total on 122-149-271, though he did not make the top three in either snatch or clean and jerk. Elsayed Aly (EGY) Snatch bronze went to Jose Gonzalez from Colombia, who was fourth on total. Adolfo Tun from Mexico was 11th on total after snatching 20kg less than Morris, but took bronze in clean and jerk from the B Group on 150kg. Eight of the nine medals went to athletes from the Americas. By Brian
