North Korea's Kim Un Guk wins 62kg weightlifting Olympic gold

  • Published
Media caption,

Kim Un-Guk sets world record

North Korea claimed their third gold medal at London 2012 after Kim Un Guk triumphed in world record-breaking style in the men's 62kg weightlifting.

The 23-year-old's 153kg snatch equalled the world's best and broke the Olympic record, and his clean and jerk helped to set a new benchmark total of 327kg.

Oscar Albeiro Figueroa Mosquera took silver at the ExCeL ahead of Indonesia's Irawan Eko Yuli.

The Colombian broke the Olympic clean and jerk record with a lift of 177kg.

Kim's success followed Friday's victories for fellow North Koreans Yun Chol Om in the men's 56kg weightlifting category and Kum Ae An in the -52kg women's judo.

The competition was a disappointing one for China's Zhang Jie though, as the pre-event favourite missed the podium places in fourth and saw his total world record bettered by the winner.

Kim thrilled the crowd with his fist pumping and load roars of delight after every lift as he took a comanding lead of 13kg over 2011 world champion Jie in the snatch.

He then lifted 174kg in the clean and jerk at the second attempt to secure his place at the top of the rostrum.

Sorry, we can't display this part of the article any more.

Related internet links

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.