World records for Nurudinov and Yang Zhe at Asian Weightlifting Championships Saturday, 24 April 2021
Two athletes set world records and a young Iranian had a memorable victory on the penultimate day of the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, but none of the three is likely to be at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games this year.
Two are ineligible and the third, China’s Yang Zhe, is not one of the strongest gold medal chances in the team and is unlikely to be selected.
Yang broke the 109 kilograms snatch world record with 200kg, and could then only watch as Uzbekistan’s most popular weightlifter, Ruslan Nurudinov, and his young teammate Akbar Djuraev left him behind in the clean and jerk.
Friday, 16 April 2021
Many of the world’s best weightlifters will be in action in Tashkent in Uzbekistan over the next week at the Asian Championships, including at least 11 potential Olympic gold medallists.
China, whose athletes already lead 10 of the 14 Tokyo 2020 qualifying categories for men and women, is sending a formidable team of 20, not one of whom is entered in the six non-Olympic events.
No other nation in the Asian Championships is fielding the maximum 20, though there are big teams from Japan (19), Uzbekistan (18), Kazakhstan (17) and South Korea (15).
North Korea is not taking part, having decided not to compete at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games because of fears over the COVID-19 pandemic.