Rim grabs third weightlifting gold for North Korea

I / London August 02, 2012, 14:09 IST

North Korea's Rim Jong-Sim relied on her superior clean and jerk to win the women's 69kg class, the reclusive nation's third gold of the Olympic weighlifting competition.

Rim, 19, recorded a combined total of 261kg after snatching 115kg and registering a best in the clean and jerk of 146kg yesterday.

Romanian Roxana Cocos took silver with a total of 256kg (113, 143), with Belarus' Maryna Shkermankova claiming bronze with 256kg (113, 143).

It was North Korea's third gold after title-winning performances by Kim Un-Guk and Om Yun-Chol in the men's -62 and 56kg classes respectively, while Ryang Chun-Hwa nabbed a bronze in the women's 48kg category.

 

Rim, like Kim and Om, was quick to put her victory down to her communist homeland's late "Great Leader" Kim Jong-Il and his son and successor, "Great Comrade" Kim Jong-Un.

"Even though it was a very close competition, I gained strength to give joy to our supreme leader," said Rim, whose best in the total has improved by a masssive 30kg in just one year.

"I won't be greedy or proud. That way I will win more gold medals in the future."

In an exceptionally tight competition marred by the withdrawal through injury of Russia's world champion Oxana Slivenko, three lifters -- Dzina Sazanavets of Belarus, Kazakh Anna Nurmukhambetova and Rim -- all snatched 115kg.

Cocos and Shkermankova lifted 113kg, and Armenian Mmeline Daluzyan and Colombian Ubaldina Valoyes were a further 2kg adrift.