Park Hyejeong Wins Silver in Women's Superheavyweight Weightlifting, Securing Consecutive Medals

South Korea's premier heavyweight weightlifter Park Hyejeong (Goyang City Hall) has won the silver medal at the Asian Games.

Today (the 29th), at the women's +86kg weightlifting event of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at the Nagoya City Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Center in Japan, Park placed second with a snatch of 133 kg, a clean and jerk of 167 kg, and a total of 300 kg.

Park, the gold medalist at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games held in 2023, aimed to become the first female weightlifter in South Korean history to win consecutive titles at the tournament, but concluded her run with a silver medal.

The competition quickly shaped up as a three-way race between Park, Li Wenwen (China), and Eyssal Al-Klaef (Qatar).

Among the seven competing athletes, these three boasted overwhelming records, while the remaining four effectively competed for lower rankings.

Li Wenwen, the gold medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2024 Paris Olympics, took the lead by lifting 140 kg in the snatch, while Park placed second with 133 kg, surpassing her own previous South Korean record by 2 kg.

Al-Klaef attempted to challenge Park, but failed both her second attempt at 129 kg and her third attempt at 131 kg.

Park lagged behind Li by 7 kg in the snatch, but lifted 13 kg more than Al-Klaef.

In the clean and jerk, Al-Klaef dropped out of the title race, narrowing the battle down to Park and Li.

Al-Klaef succeeded only in her first attempt of 153 kg in the clean and jerk and failed her second attempt at 168 kg, moving further away from the championship contention.

Li lifted 170 kg in her second attempt, bringing her total to 310 kg and widening the gap to 10 kg against Park, whose total stood at 300 kg at the time.

Foregoing the gold medal chase, Park attempted a personal best of 173 kg in the clean and jerk for her third attempt, and failing to lift it, secured the silver medal.

Park set new South Korean records in both the snatch (133 kg) and the total (300 kg).

Having secured the gold medal, Li stepped up for her final third attempt and celebrated her victory with a ceremony instead of lifting the barbell, before stepping off the platform.

Li claimed the gold medal with a snatch of 140 kg, a clean and jerk of 170 kg, and a total of 310 kg.

With this win, Li completed a grand slam spanning the Olympics, World Championships, and Asian Games.

Al-Klaef took home the bronze medal with a snatch of 120 kg, a clean and jerk of 153 kg, and a total of 273 kg.

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