Paris Olympics: China’s Hou Zhihui calls her weightlifting gold ‘most thrilling of career’
- Reigning champion has one attempt left to overtake Romanian rival and manages it, after coach tells her to do it for country and teammates
Hou Zhihui saluted the “most thrilling competition of my career” after staging a sensational Olympic weightlifting gold medal heist in Paris overnight.
Before her final attempt of a roller-coaster 49kg women’s event, China’s Hou knew that if she did not break her own Olympic record, the gold she won in Tokyo would be followed by bronze in the French capital.
Hou failed in her first bid to clean-and-jerk 117kg, but swiftly returned to hoist the bar high above her head and spark more Chinese jubilation inside a rapt South Paris Arena 6, after Li Fabin earlier retained his men’s 61kg crown.
The 27-year-old Hou’s total of 206kg, after she lifted 89kg in the snatch portion, was marginally beneath the 210kg that won her the Olympic title three years ago.
It was sufficient, however, to inflict heartbreak on Mihaela Cambei, the warrior Romanian who managed 205kg and became the first woman from her country to win an Olympic medal.