Yeon Hak Jang of South Korea and Artem Antropov of Kazakhstan swept the men’s 85kg category of the Asian Junior Weightlifting Championships on Friday. 

In Group ‘A’ junior category, Jang snatched 162kg and lifted 185kg in clean and jerk to sweep the event with a total lift of 374kg. Jen-Po Chen of Chinese Taipei took silver in snatch (155kg) and total (336kg) apart from a bronze in clean and jerk (181kg) in the category. Antropov took silver in clean and jerk (182kg) and total lift (323kg), his junior performance later won him triple gold in the youth category.

In the youth 85kg category, Amirreza Askaridoun of Iran won silver with a snatch of 140kg and total lift of 305kg. Oman’s Mursaid Mohamed Al-Ajmi got clean and jerk silver with 169kg. Azimjon Khojiev of Uzbekistan claimed bronze in all three events lifting 136 in snatch, 168kg in clean and jerk for a total lift of 304kg. Nepal’s Vishal Singh Bista improved his personal best in Group ‘B’ of the same weight category in junior section with a total lift of 211kg—93kg in snatch and 118kg in clean and jerk. His previous best was 87kg in snatch, 110kg in clean and jerk for a total lift of 197kg during last year’s seventh National Games in Eastern Region.

Lialeksandr of Uzbekistan also bagged triple gold in the men’s 94kg weight category in Group ‘A’ with a total lift of 329kg. The event, held jointly with men’s 94kg and above category won him double silver. Lialeksandr had 140kg in snatch and 189kg in clean and jerk. His compatriot Saidmukhtor Saivkhrorov took silver in all three events - lifting 134kg in snatch, 175kg in clean and jerk for a total lift of 309kg. There were only two lifters in the weight category.

Fareselbakh of Qatar struck gold in total lift under the men’s above 94kg with 375kg. Alkhazal Ali Ahmed took bronze with 320kg. Iranian lifted Biralvand Reza took gold in snatch with 166kg, while Fareselbakh (165kg) and Ahmed (143kg) earned silver and bronze respectively. 

Fareselbakh had lifted 210kg in clean and jerk for a gold, while silver and bronze went to Lileksandr (189kg) and Malfayyoh Abdulhussain (178kg) of Iraq. Nepal’s Jaidee Koju had competed in the weight category for the first time and lifted a total of 178kg. He had 78kg in snatch and 100kg in clean and jerk.

In the youth category of men’s above 95kg, Saki Hossain of Iran won gold medals in total lift (348kg) and snatch (160kg) event. He took silver in clean and jerk with 188kg. Another lifter Iranian Mohammad Shahabandaz took gold in clean and jerk (160kg), silver in total (328kg) and bronze in snatch (137kg), while Sheng-Lun Lin of Chinese Taipei silver in snatch (140kg) and bronze medals in clean and jerk (187kg) and total lift (327kg).

The tournament was held for the first time in the Asian sub continent and was participated in by a total of 197 players from 28 Asian countries. In the event organised by the Nepal Weightlifting Association, Thailand’s Chomcheun Teerapat was .the only lifter to shatter the world record.