The post ‘Rose of Sharon’ Park Hye-jung (20-Goyang City Hall) won three gold medals in the women’s heavyweight category at the World Weightlifting Championships appeared first on Weightlifting World Championships.The Korean lifted 124kg in the snatch, 165kg in the jerk and 289kg in total to take first place in all three categories at the Women’s 87kg and above event at the 2023 World Weightlifting Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 16 June.Unlike the Olympic and Asian Games, medals are awarded for the lifts, snatch and total at the World Weightlifting Championships.Park took home gold medals in all three categories.This is the first time in two years that a South Korean athlete has won the women’s heavyweight title at a World Weightlifting Championships since Son Young-hee (30, Busan City Sports Association) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 2021.However, in 2021, weightlifting’s strongest nation, China, did not compete.In 2021, Son finished second in the lift and won two gold medals in the jerk and total.She is the first woman to win first place in the lifting, dragon and all-around at a World Championships.Jang Jang-ran, the current Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is a former weightlifter who was crowned World Champion four times during her career (Doha, Qatar, 2005; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2006; Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2007; and Goyang, South Korea, 2009), but she also lost the top spot in the lift to another athlete.A strong favourite to win the women’s heavyweight title at the 2023 World Championships was reigning Tokyo Olympic champion Li Wenyuan (CHN), who holds three world records in this category (148kg in the lift, 187kg in the snatch and 335kg in the total).However, Li Wenwen failed to reach 130kg in the first and second periods of the lifts and withdrew from the competition without stepping onto the platform.After Li Wenyuan’s withdrawal, there was no one left to threaten Park Hye Jung.In second place in this weight class was Marie Tyson-Raffen (USA) with 277kg (117kg lifted – 160kg on the platform). The gap between her and Park was 12kg.Son Young-hee (KOR) finished second in the vault with 122kg, but after failing her first attempt at 157kg, she abandoned her second and third attempts and did not record a total.Park Hye-jung is the ‘Jang Jang-ran kid’.She dominated the weightlifting world, winning the 2008 Beijing Olympics and four world titles. Her achievements have been recognised since the revelations of her contemporaries’ drug histories.Park Hye-jung, an ordinary girl, came to Seonbu Middle School, which has a weightlifting club, in her first year of junior high school after watching Jang Jang-ran compete.Most athletes who start weightlifting dream of becoming the next Jang Jang-ran.However, not many athletes are considered by the weightlifting world to be a ‘second rose’.Park Hye-jung has established herself as one of the leading contenders for the ‘post-Joseulan’ after breaking the Korean middle school record (259kg total) and junior record (290kg).She was also unbeatable on the world junior stage.Park won the World Junior Championships in Heraklion, Greece, in May last year (lift 120kg, beam 161kg, total 281kg) and the Asian Junior Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in July (lift 115kg, beam 155kg, total 270kg).But even for her, the pressure of being labelled a “post-rose” athlete was considerable.”A lot of people supported me from a young age. I was very grateful. At the same time, I felt a lot of pressure because my records didn’t improve as much as I expected,” she said, adding, “In my third year of high school, I wandered and went through a slump.”Park, who lifted a total of 290kg in her second year of high school, set a goal of 300kg for her third year of high school. However, her best total last year, her senior year, was 285kg.In 2022, her first appearance at the World Championships, she finished eighth with a total of 274kg (119kg lifted and 155kg vaulted).Park, who was unemployed this year, broke her personal best in the women’s 87kg and above category at the 2023 Jinju Asian Weightlifting Championships in May with a lift of 127kg, a snatch of 168kg and a total of 295kg.Despite the gap between her total of 315kg (140kg in the lift and 175kg in the snatch) and that of the winner, Lee Won-won, Park once again proved her international competitiveness by placing second in the total and lift and third in the snatch. Since 2020, only two women have lifted a total of 295kg or more, Lee Won-won and Park Hye-jung.In her second appearance at the World Championships, Lee surpassed even Wonwon Lee to become the champion .Park will also compete at the Hangzhou Asian Games alongside Son Young-hee. While Li Wenwen remains the number one favourite to win the Asian Games in Hangzhou, Park proved at the 카지노사이트 World Championships that upsets can happen at any time.
