Bahrain, Day 2: Two golds and big numbers for PRK – and more world records for a China newcomer

PRK went to the top of the medals table, where they are expected to remain, by winning both medal events on day two of the IWF World Championships in Bahrain.

Their champions, Ri Song Gum in the women’s 49kg and Pak Myong Jin in the men’s 61kg, posted impressive numbers, as did China’s international debutant Xiang Linxiang. All three made totals that would have been good enough for a place on the podium at the Paris Olympic Games, where these two weights were on the programme.

Xiang was not in China’s Olympic qualifying team, while PRK athletes were not eligible because they did not return from a lengthy Covid-related absence in time to qualify for Paris. None of the six Olympic medallists at these weights lifted here today.

Ri Song Gum (PRK)

Ri missed three of her six lifts, two of which were world record attempts, but she held off a strong challenge from Xiang, who set four junior world records. Ri’s winning total of 213kg was 7kg more than Xiang’s team-mate Hou Zhihui made for gold in Paris four months ago.

Pak Myong Jin was the only man to surpass 300kg in the 61kg session, finishing well clear of Aniq Kasdan from Malaysia, who had finished fourth in Paris.

A Chinese newcomer had gone head-to-head with one of PRK’s many women’s world record holders on Friday. Zhao Jinhong surprised multiple winner Won Hyon Sim at 45kg, taking two of her world records and finishing 9kg clear.

Today, 20-year-old Xiang marked herself out as a serious contender in the coming years but she could not stop Ri claiming  PRK’s first victory of the Championships.

Xiang Linxiang (CHN)

Xiang took China’s tally to eight world records in two days, four senior and four junior, when she made 92-120-212, a 5kg improvement on her best domestic total this year. She set junior records in clean and jerk and total twice when she made 117kg and 120kg with her final two attempts.

Ri was not so lucky with her world record attempts, failing with a 98kg snatch and a 126kg clean and jerk. She made 91-122-213.

Finishing ahead of Chinese athletes is special for Ri. She had to wait a long nine years from the Youth Olympic Games in 2014, when she was 16, to get the better of Jiang Huihua or her team-mate and double Olympic champion Hou Zhihui.

Ri has beaten both and set seven world records since September last year. Now she will have to improve again to contend with Xiang’s challenge. Xiang improved the junior world records, previously held by Jiang Huihua, by 6kg in both clean and jerk and total.

Rosegie Ramos from the Philippines was third, 20kg behind Ri on 88-105-193. That was a career best for Ramos, who had made four straight totals of 190kg or 191kg in the past year.

Lin Cheng-Jing from Chinese Taipei won clean and jerk bronze with 107kg. She was fourth, one place ahead of Gyaneshwari Yadav from India, who had a career-best total of 182kg.

Pak Myong Jin (PRK)

Pak had a sweep of golds on 132-173-305, failing only with his second snatch attempt. Aniq was second on 130-166-296 and Tran Anh Tuan Nguyen from Vietnam was third on 131-160-291, ahead of Wei Haixian from China who made only two good lifts in totalling 288kg. 

Tran’s Olympian team-mate Trinh Van Vinh failed with all three clean and jerks and bombed out for the fifth time in his past 10 competitions.

The men’s 61kg podium

There was a B Group snatch bronze for Garnik Cholakyan from Armenia on 130kg, and newcomer Wei won silver in clean and jerk on 160kg.

The United States Air Force was represented in the morning session, the men’s 67kg C Group, by a man who hails from a remote Pacific island, graduated in Colorado Springs and is now stationed in Japan, where he trains in his garage.

Leowell Cristobal is from Northern Mariana Islands (NMI), which presents him with a big challenge in reaching his ambition of lifting at the Olympic Games.

NMI is an unincorporated territory of the US. Other nations with a broadly similar status, such as Puerto Rico, Guam and Marshall Islands have National Olympic Committees but MNI does not.

Cristobal realised a boyhood dream when he joined the US Air Force, but his other big goal, competing at the Olympic Games, depends on NMI gaining recognition from the International Olympic Committee after many years of trying. “I need it to happen in time for LA 2028,” said Cristobal, 26, who would have a chance of a tripartite place if it did.

He moved from Saipan to the US to graduate at the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs, and switched from track and field in 2018 when he found he liked lifting weights more than running. “My role is battle management, which is managing the airspace,” he said.

Leowell Cristobal (NMI)

While based in Japan, Cristobal is performing his USAF duties, training four to five times a week, and studying online for a Masters in kinesiology. His training programme is devised by the American coach Jackie Black, whose arranged for her friend Kyle Pierce to take on the coaching duties in Bahrain.

“I only met him yesterday,” said Pierce. “He’s very focused and I’m sure he can improve.”

The next competition for Cristobal, who made a career-best 105-143-248, will be the Pacific Mini Games in Palau in July. He will probably need to improve his total by at least 30kg to be Oceania’s top lifter if he opts for the new 65kg category.

Two members of the USA team are also familiar with aircraft. Gabe Chhum, who finished first and second at the past two World Juniors, is an aircraft engineer and Preston Powell, also a World Juniors medallist in 2023, is training to be a commercial pilot.

By Brian Oliver

Photos by DBM/Deepbluemedia