WEIGHTLIFTING – Bahrain’s Ingrid Vanesa Segura Grueso captured the bronze medal yesterday in the women’s 69kg category in weightlifting at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
Grueso put up a strong challenge for the podium at Nagoya City Trade and Industry Centre and succeeded in climbing the final step.
She secured the maiden Asiad medal of her young career with an impressive total of 229kg – comprising a snatch of 101kg and a clean and jerk of 128kg.
The 20-year-old completed all three of her attempts in the snatch portion of the competition. She opened with a 95kg lift, which she followed with a 98kg effort.
Grueso then put herself in strong contention for a medal with her third and final snatch lift of 101kg, which was fourth-best amongst the 10 participants in the session.
In the clean and jerk, Grueso successfully lifted 123kg and 128kg in her first two attempts, but could not complete her third at 133kg, which would have put her on the podium as the silver-medallist.
Kuk Hyang Song from North Korea bagged the gold medal with a massive world record total of 273kg – completely dominating the event.
Her bests of 121kg in snatch and 152kg in clean and jerk were also world records.
Wen-huei Chen from Chinese Taipei secured the runner-up spot with a 232kg total – three kg ahead of Greuso. Chen’s snatch mark was 106kg and her clean and jerk was 126kg.
In attendance during yesterday’s competition were Bahrain Olympic Committee (BOC) board member and Bahrain Weightlifting Federation (BWF) president Eshaq Ebrahim Eshaq, BOC board member and BOC Arab and international relations director Fajer Jasim Hasan Mohamed, BOC sports project management director Lounes Madene, BOC executive director of operations and Bahrain’s chef de mission in Aichi-Nagoya Ahmed Abdulghaffar, BOC secretary general office’s director Shoof Almalood, BOC Arab and international relations head Maryam Mardana, BWF board member and BWF secretary general Tariq Al Bastaki, and Bahrain’s world-renowned weightlifting coach Aymer Orozco, along with other delegation officials.
Grueso was the first of Bahrain’s four lifters taking part in this year’s Asian Games.
The others are Jokser Albornoz Quinto, who will be in action today in the men’s 95kg final Group A, and Alina Marushchak in the women’s 86kg final Group A along with Gor Minasyan in the men’s over-110kg Group A, both tomorrow.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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