5th WUC Weightlifting: Day 3 of Competitions

MERIDA – American Martha Rogers, did not encounter any contenders in her category and proclaimed herself the champion of the women’s 69kg category on the third day of the 5th World University Weightlifting Championship hosted in the Kukulcán Sport Complex in Mérida, Yucatan. Rogers was indeed the best lifter and she had excellent strategies in order to get the three medals of this category, beating Canadian Marie Beauchemin, who represented her country in the Olympic Games of Rio and London. Beauchemin and Rogers faced each other in a good battle of strategies, in which the American imposed herself in the snatch, when she lifted 103 kg, to keep the gold medal, while Beauchemin settled for 92 kg and couldn’t win any medals. The second place in snatch was for Beata Jung from Hungary lifting 98 kg, and bronze went to Szu Yang, from Chinese Taipei, lifting 93 kg. But the best part was in the clean and jerk category, where Martha Rogers didn’t have any problems and lifted 132 kg; 10 kg more than former Olympian Marie Beauchemin who lifted 123 kg, pocketing the silver medal, with another bronze for Szu Yang lifting 114 kg. In the total, Szu Yang finished with 207 kg lifted, Marie Beauchemin with 215 kg and Martha Rogers with 235 kg lifted. Martha Rogers, a student at Valencia College, arrived at this championship with a spectacular score, lifting a record in the snatch category with 103 kg at the National University Championship in the USA. “I had great experiences in Mexico and the best one was to win the three medals”, she commented after pocketing the three golds.

Martha Rogers (USA)

Korean Yeonhak Jang, imposed himself in a dominant way over the other competitors in the men’s 85kg category. Jang easily worked the snatch and also the clean and jerk, in order to take the three golden medals before the United States, Poland, and Thailand competitors, who were his closest rivals. Since the start of the competition, the Korean showed that he was determined to win when he started lifting weights that were too much for the other competitors, leaving them the second and third places respectively. Yeonhak lifted 157 kg at the snatch, surpassing his opponent by 6 kg. At the clean & jerk he lifted 187 kg; 7 kg more than the lifter who ended in second place, for a total of 344 kg and 15 kg more than the competitor who won the silver medal. In the snatch, the second place went to American James Tatum, who lifted 151 kg whereas the Thai Banyat Tawnok landed on third place. He imposed himself over Polish lifter Adrian Pawlicki by bodyweight. Both of them lifted 147 kg. At the clean and jerk category, the American Travis Cooper came second with 180 kg, the same weight lifted by Pawlicki but with less bodyweight. As a consequence, the European won the bronze medal. At the total, Tatun won silver with a sum of 329 kilograms, whereas Pawlicki finished third lifting a total of 327 kg. 

Yeonhak Jang (KOR)

Park Hanwoong (94 kg) finished the competition day on another positive note for Korea, winning three gold medals. After he participated at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where he reached the eliminatory phase and placed himself in tenth place, the Korean arrived at this WUC wanting to show his value and he did, pocketing three golden medals and crowning himself World University Champion. At this occasion, Park won the snatch with only a small margin lifting 152 kg whereas his closest rival, Chen Seng-Ying from Chinese Taipei, lifted 151 kg. David Samayoa, from Canada, lifted 148 kg and ended in third place. Samayoa did not have a successful run at the clean & jerk, as he failed the three attempts and this left him out of the medal run He ended with a total of 177 kg. At the clean & jerk, Park Hanwoong imposed himself again when he lifted 195 kg at the first attempt, at the second he tried 205 kg but failed and after this he decided not to continue competing. Chen Seng-Ying lifted 178 kg winning silver. Third place went to Tien Wei-Te, also from Chinese-Taipei, who lifted 174 kg. For the total, the first place winner finished with 374 kg, leaving the second and third place for the two lifters from Chinese Taipei: Chen Sheng-Ying (329 kg) and Tien Wei-Te (320 kg).

 Park Hanwoong (KOR)

(Source: OC #WUCWeightlifting2016)