Vietnamese lifter wins six golds, breaks world record at Asian youth & junior championships

Vietnamese weightlifter Do Tu Tung competes in the boys' 55kg category at the 2020 Asian Youth and Junior Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

In the snatch event, Tung competed against his compatriot Dac Tri and Ogabek of the host country. The 2004-born athlete was successful with all the three attempts and achieved the best lift of 110kg.

The result not only earned Tung a gold medal but also helped him to break the world youth & junior record set by Italy’s Massidda Sergio in October 2019, exceeding it by 1kg.

Inspired by the snatch victory, Tung continued to top the clean & jerk competition with a lift of 136kg, which allowed him to complete a hat-trick of titles in the boys’ 55kg category with a total lift of 246kg.

As Tung had registered to compete in both the youth and junior events, he eventually brought home six gold medals for Vietnam overall. Meanwhile, teammate Dac Tri secured a silver in the youth discipline.

Tung’s 2020 performance was even more impressive than his display in last year’s tournament, during which he blasted four golds with lifts of 109kg (snatch), 137kg (clean & jerk) and 246kg (total).

Earlier, on February 14, the Vietnamese contingent clinched seven gold, two silver and two bronze medals thanks to the brilliance of Nguyen Thi Thu Hoai (girls’ 45kg) and Nguyen Thi Thuy Tien (girls’ 55kg).

16-year-old Thu Hoai finished second in the snatch event with a lift of 63kg but took top honour in the clean & jerk and total categories with respective lifts of 86kg and 149kg, thus claiming four gold and two silver medals for Vietnam (in both the youth and junior divisions).

Thuy Tien, 19, outclassed Juliana Klarisa (Indonesia) and Ananya Patyl (India) to sweep all three titles in the youth division, conquering the weight levels of 79kg (snatch), 105kg (clean & jerk) and 182kg (total).

The 2020 Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships sees 197 lifters from 20 countries and territories battle for medals across 24 weight categories. The tournament offers an opportunity for participants to accumulate points for Tokyo 2020 Olympic slots.

Source: NDO