Rizki Juniansyah scripts weightlifting record at Paris Olympics: Decoding campaign
Indonesian athlete Rizki Juniansyah scripted history on August 8 as he set a new Olympic clean-and-jerk record. He lifted 199kg and the same earned him a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Notably, Juniansyah participated in the men's 73kg category in weightlifting. Notably, he was lagging earlier in the competition. Here we decode his campaign.
155kg lift in snatch
Juniansyah began his campaign by lifting 155kg in the snatch portion of the event. Though he recorded the second-best snatch in this round, the Indonesian ace was 10kg behind Shi Zhiyong of China, who lifted 165 kg. Notably, Shi was also the defending gold medalist heading into the Paris Games. Hence, he would have been high on confidence.
Shi's loss was Juniansyah's gain
Unfortunately for China, Shi missed all three of his attempts in the clean-and-jerk category. He hence left the stage with no chance of a podium finish. With his major rival out, Juniansyah needed just one solid lift to finish at the top. He seemingly secured the gold with a 191kg lift on his first attempt. He then aced the 199kg lift.
Gold for Juniansyah
Juniansyah didn't have to go for a third attempt as he finished with a total of 354kg, eight more than silver medalist Weeraphon Wichuma of Thailand (346). Bulgaria's Bozhidar Andreev clinched the bronze for lifting 344kg. Notably, Wichuma came close to Juniansyah in the clean-and-jerk part, clocking 198kg on his third attempt. Hence, Juniansyah's 199kg lift was mighty crucial.
Juniansyah broke the Olympic record
Shi's failure in Paris was indeed shocking as he held the previous clean-and-jerk record in the Olympics. He lifted 198kg at the 2020 Tokyo Games. However, Juniansyah bettered his tally by clocking 199kg. Wichuma has now gone level with Shi in this regard. Notably, the 21-year-old Juniansyah brought Indonesia's first ever Olympic weightlifting gold. Juniansyah also became Indonesia's youngest Olympic gold medalist.
