Meng Suping wins the gold medal with a total of 307kg in the women's over 75kg weightlifting. (Photo: Chinanews.com/Agencies)
The Rio 2016 Olympic Games weightlifting tournament wrapped up on Tuesday with Georgian Lasha Talakhadze winning the men's over 105kg category gold medal in an enthralling heavyweight contest in which two world records were set.[Special coverage]
The event more than did justice to a remarkable 10-day, 15-category tournament that featured eight world and 13 Olympic records and finished with weightlifting powerhouse China heading the medal table to match their London 2012 haul of five gold and two silver medals.
Chinese Meng Suping's victory in the +75kg women's event on Sunday also ensured China came top in the weightlifting medals table for the fifth successive Olympic Games.
"We won three gold medals in the women's events. It means we have accomplished our goal to win at least two golds. However, I think we could have done better than three golds," said Wang Guoxin, the head coach of the Chinese women's team.
With 10 athletes entered in as many events, China always had a mandate to do well. But its cause was not helped by the pre-Games withdrawal of women's 48kg hope Hou Zhihui due to injury, and the mid-contest retirement of another red hot gold medal chance Chen Lijun, who suffered leg cramps during the men's 62kg.
"Chinese male lifters showed a high-level performance at the Rio Games. We are happy to win two golds and two silvers as our opponents were quite strong," said Yu Jie, the head coach of the Chinese men's team.
"Of course we made some mistakes during the competition, so we missed the chance to win in the men's 62kg and 85kg category," added him.
Except Chen suffering leg cramps during the men' s 62kg, Tian Tao failed four attempts but still won silver medal in the men' s 85kg competition.
"We are going to think over why we missed so many winning chances when we go back home," Yu said.
Thailand's Sopita Tanasan and Sukanya Srisurat were stars with victories in the women's 48kg and women's 58kg respectively to propel their nation to second in the medal standings, while Iran were third with two golds.
Democratic People's Republic of Korea won four medals to finish fourth in the rankings, but Rim Jong Sim was their only gold medallist after she won the women's 75kg.
In the women's event Olympic debutant Hsu Shu-Ching set a snatch Olympic record of 101kg on her way to becoming the first weightlifter from Chinese Taipei to win gold.
Long Qingquan of China had a record-smashing contest with Om Yun Chol of DPR Korea in the 56kg in which the pair broke three Olympic records before Long had the final say with a world record total of 307kg.
Other firsts during the tournament included Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosquera becoming the first male Colombian to win an Olympic gold when he competed in the men's 62kg event, 18-year-old Sara Ahmed winning bronze in the women's 69kg to become the first Egyptian woman to win an Olympic weightlifting medal, and Spain's Lidia Valentin Perez giving her nation the same with bronze in the women's 75kg.
Ruslan Nurudinov also won the first Olympic medal for Uzbekistan in weightlifting with gold in the men's 105kg event as large and enthusiastic crowds cheered the 260-plus weightlifters who participated in the tournament.
