Weightlifter Siripuch fails to make her mark in Rio Games
Siripuch Gulnoi’s high hope to win a medal in Rio for two times in succession at the Olympic Games was completely shattered when the 23-year-old Bangkokian failed in lifting 132kg in the clean and jerk for all three attempts on Wednesday morning (Bkk time
Siripuch, formerly Rattikan, contested the women’s 58kg class at the London Games four years ago to originally finish fourth, but was promoted to third and won the bronze medal after Ukrainian Yuliya Kalina was disqualified following the failed dope test.
Siripuch, who made a clean sweep of three gold medals at this year’s Asian Weightlifting Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, has aimed high to repeat the similar feat. This time, she moved up to compete in the 63kg event. However, her sweet dream turned a nightmare.
Only seven competitors were left in contention after Taiwanese Lin Tzu-Chi, world record-holder in the Olympic Total and gold medallist at the Incheon Asian Games two years ago, failed in drug test ahead of the competition.
Siripuch lifted 105kg in her first attempt in the snatch and was still successful in lifting 108kg in her second effort. However, she failed to lift 110kg in the third attempt.
In the clean and jerk event, Siripuch could not lift 132kg in all three attempts to crash out miserly from the competition.
Chinese Deng Wei, defending two-time world champion, PRK’s Choe Hyo Sim and Kazakhstan’s Karina Goricheva captured gold, silver and bronze medals respectively.
Deng was in devastating form on Wednesday. The Chinese lifted the Olympic record of 115kg in the snatch, which was established by Hanna Batsiushka from Belarus at the 2004 Athens Games. She went on to erase her own World clean and jerk record of 146kg established last year at the IWF World Championships in Houston, the USA, and set a new world record of 147kg for the combined lifts of 262kg in the Olympic Total, also a new world record.
Choe Hyo Sim lifted an aggregate 248kg to pick up silver, while Goricheva claimed bronze after a total lifts of 243kg.
With Siripuch failing in the women’s 63kg event, only three out of four women’s weightlifters from Thailand - Sopita Tanasan, Sukanya Srisurat and Pimsiri Sirikaew returned with medals, with the first two capturing gold.