Weeraphon Wichuma shining at the Olympics - Photo: IOC
Weeraphon Wichuma is not a strange name in the world of weightlifting. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Thai weightlifter created a stir when he won the silver medal in the 73kg weight class.
And recently, Wichuma surprised the weightlifting world when he continued to shine at the 2025 World Championship taking place in Norway.
There is a difference in the division of weight classes at the world championships compared to the Olympics. The gold medalist in the 73kg category at Paris 2024, Indonesian weightlifter Rizki Juniansyah, has moved up to compete in the 79kg category.
Meanwhile, Wichuma competed in the 71kg weight class, with the same lineup of opponents in the 73kg weight class at the Paris Olympics (except Juniansyah).
Without his great rival, Wichuma's victory was predictable. However, he still had to go through an extremely dramatic battle with the powerful representatives of China and Japan.
Yet Wichuma still left those present at the Fordehuset Stadium in awe when he broke the world record.
After the snatch competition, Wichuma tied for second place with Japan's Miyamoto - achieving 152kg, and far behind China's He Yueji - 160kg. He also broke the world record with this result.
But in the clean and jerk, He only achieved 184kg, being surpassed by Miyamoto (clean and jerk 193kg) in the total lift. He's score was 344kg, while Miyamoto's total lift was 345kg.
Wichuma successfully lifted 190kg on his second attempt. At that time, he was only ranked 4th in the rankings, behind Turkish athlete Yusuf Genc.
Wichuma would have won a bronze medal if he had only increased the weight by 1kg. But he decided to "take a risk" and set the weight at 194kg in his last attempt (an increase of 4kg), thereby hoping to win a gold medal.
Wichuma is one of many world-class athletes from Thailand - Photo: AC
And indeed, Wichuma successfully lifted this weight, causing the Fordehunset gym to "explode" - according to the description from Siam Sports newspaper.
This is an unprecedented weight in the 71kg weight class, helping Wichuma break two world records at the same time for clean and jerk (194kg) and total lift (346kg).
And of course, the Thai weightlifter spectacularly surpassed his powerful opponents to win the world gold medal.
At the World Championships, all the categories of snatch, clean and jerk and total will count for gold. Wichuma therefore won 2 gold medals in this weight class.
This achievement also helped Thailand jump up the medal table. After half way, they had 3 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 3 bronze medals, surpassing China (3 gold medals, 1 silver medal) and only behind North Korea (12 gold medals).
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/luc-si-thai-lan-gay-soc-nang-muc-ta-chua-tung-thay-o-giai-the-gioi-2025100611213065.htm
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