Taiwan’s Kuo Hsing-chun and Chen Wen-huei won gold and bronze in the women’s 59kg and 64kg weightlifting, respectively, at the Tokyo Games July 27, bringing the country’s medal tally to six and rank by total to equal 12th with Switzerland.
Kuo, a member of the indigenous Amis tribe from southeastern Taiwan’s Taitung County, hoisted Olympic-record weights of 103kg in the snatch, 133kg in the clean and jerk and 236kg for the combined total. The 27-year-old’s powerful performance comfortably delivered victory by 19kg over Polina Guryeva of Turkmenistan, silver, and 22kg over Mikiko Andoh of Japan, bronze.
The gold improves on Kuo’s bronze at Rio 2016 and sixth at London 2012. It also gives her a career grand slam of firsts also comprising the Asian Weightlifting Championships, Universiade and World Weightlifting Championships.
During the 2020 AWC, Kuo set records with 110kg in the snatch and 247kg for the combined total. This built upon her success at the 2019 WWC with records of 140kg in the clean and jerk and 246kg for the combined total.
Chen, from New Taipei City, continued Taiwan’s winning ways with 103kg in snatch and 127 kg in clean and jerk for a combined total of 230kg. The 24-year-old’s strong effort saw her finish 6kg behind Maude Charron of Canada, gold, and 2kg behind Giorgia Bordignon of Italy, silver.
The year before, Chen claimed gold at the AWC with 100kg in snatch, 128kg in the clean and jerk and 228kg for the combined total.
According to the Sports Administration under the Ministry of Education, 68 Taiwan athletes are contesting 18 sports at the games. These include artistic gymnastics, badminton, boxing, golf, swimming and table tennis. (SFC-E)
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