China’s Liu Huanhua produced an incredible final lift of 233kg to snatch Asian Games weightlifting gold from Olympic and world champion Akbar Djuraev on Friday.
Liu’s winning total of 418kg was the equivalent of hauling a grand piano over his head and relegated a dumbstruck Djuraev into silver in Hangzhou.
The Uzbek had celebrated moments earlier believing his final lift for a 417kg total was enough.
Another Uzbek, Ruslan Nurudinov, took bronze back on 391kg after an error-strewn competition in the 109kg event, a weight division that will not feature at the Olympics next year.
Four of the nine athletes crashed out with three no-lifts, including one of the pre-event medal favourites, Reza Dehdar of Iran.
Liu won the world championship 102kg title in Riyadh last month, a category that will feature in Paris, but he moved up to 109kg for the first time in search of Asian Games medals.
The Chinese lifter was not able to bulk up for the heavier division, weighing in at 99.5kg, yet still lifted 14kg more than the 404kg total he achieved to win his 102kg world title.
“This is at home. I could not fail,” Liu said.
“The crowd was so enthusiastic that they lifted me up and I had this driving force inside me, and that’s why I was able to put in this performance and win the gold medal.”
Later Friday the women’s heavyweights (87kg) take to the weightlifting platform.
Weightlifting wraps up with the men’s (+109kg) and women’s (+87kg) superheavyweights on Saturday.
The world record in that men’s category stands at a staggering 492kg — the weight of a Fiat 500 car.
