Jeon Hee-su, Daughter of London Bronze Medalist Jeon Sang-gyun, Finishes 5th in Weightlifting with Personal Best of 248kg

Promising South Korean female weightlifter Jeon Hee-su (19, Goyang City Hall) delivered a valuable performance by breaking her personal best total record on her debut Asian Games stage.

Jeon finished in 5th place overall at the women's 86kg weightlifting event of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held today (September 29) at the Nagoya International Exhibition Hall (Fukiage Hall / SME Promotion Center) in Nagoya, Japan, lifting 107kg in the snatch, 141kg in the clean and jerk, and a total of 248kg.

Although she did not reach the medal podium, she surpassed her previous personal best total and proved her competitiveness for future international stages.

Easily clearing 103kg in her first snatch attempt, Jeon missed 107kg in her second attempt, but calmly lifted 107kg on her third try to finish the snatch portion.

In the clean and jerk, her concentration stood out as she overcame the crisis of a overturned decision.

Registering for 137kg in her first clean and jerk attempt, Jeon lifted the barbell above her head and stepped slightly forward to the left, but held on until the end to initially receive a success ruling.

However, following a video review by the judges, it was determined that her movement had not completely stopped, and the ruling was reversed to a failure.

It was a situation that could have easily shaken her, but Jeon took on the exact same weight of 137kg in her second attempt.

Just like her first attempt, she faced a crisis with her body leaning forward to the left, but this time she perfectly maintained her balance and held a stationary position, proudly earning three white lights.

Regaining her confidence, Jeon smoothly lifted up to 141kg in her final third attempt and flashed a bright smile.

At 19 years old this year, Jeon comes from a prominent weightlifting family in South Korea.

Her father is Jeon Sang-gyun, the men's super-heavyweight (over 105kg) bronze medalist at the 2012 London Olympics and silver medalist at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games, and her mother is Oh Sook-kyung, a former weightlifter.

Following in her father's footsteps to take up the barbell and proudly wear the Taegeuk mark, Jeon took a meaningful first step at her maiden Asian Games by setting a personal best.

Meanwhile, the gold medal in this weight category went to Wu Yan of China, who lifted 124kg in the snatch, 149kg in the clean and jerk, and a total of 273kg.

Alina Marushchak of Bahrain took the silver medal with a total of 272kg, and Mahsa Beheshti of Iran claimed the bronze with a total of 259kg.

(Photo provided by Korea Weightlifting Federation, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.