The duel between China’s Long Qingquan and North Korea’s Om Yun Chol in the 56kg weightlifting competition was a highly entertaining one, and in the end it took the breaking of world and Olympic records to determine the gold medalist.
Long Qingquan’s combined total of 307 kilograms lifted in the snatch and clean and jerk disciplines was enough to win gold by just four kilograms over Om Yun Chol, and the mark establishes new Olympic and World records for the weight class. Halil Mutlu’s mark of 305 kilograms was established at the Summer Olympics in Sydney in 2000.