Taiwanese Olympic gold medalist Kuo Hsing-chun (郭婞淳) on Saturday won her fifth world title at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, clinching two gold medals and one silver.
Kuo, who competed in the women’s under-59kg division, won a silver medal in the snatch event after lifting 100kg, and then two gold medals with a clean and jerk of 130kg and a combined lift of 230kg.
Kuo also won the IWF World Championship title in 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2013.
Photo: Reuters
Her latest win was her 12th consecutive victory in the under-59kg and under-58kg categories, leaving her unbeaten since she finished third at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The competition consists of two parts: the snatch, in which an athlete lifts the bar from the floor to above their head in one movement, and the clean and jerk, which requires the athlete to first bring the bar to their chest before jerking it over their head.
Athletes compete by performing each of the two types of lifts three times and adding together the heaviest weight lifted in each. The person who scores the highest combined weight wins the competition.
On Saturday, Kuo lifted 97kg in her first attempt in the snatch, which was heavier than any of the attempts of her opponents.
She settled for a best of 100kg made in her second attempt after an unsuccessful third attempt.
Mariia Hanhur of Ukraine won the gold after lifting 101kg in her third attempt.
By the time Kuo successfully lifted 128kg in her second attempt in the clean and jerk, she had effectively won the title, as her combined lift outweighed that of her opponents.
In her third attempt, Kuo lifted 130kg to extend her combined lift to 230kg, beating Colombian Yenny Alvarez by 4kg, to take two golds.
All three world records in the women’s under-59kg class are held by Kuo. They are a 110kg snatch, a 140kg clean and jerk and a 247kg total.
Kuo has won 10 golds, five silvers and two bronzes at the World Championships. The number of gold medals she has also surpasses the nine accumulated by former Olympic national weightlifter Chen Jui-lien (陳瑞蓮), making Kuo Taiwan’s top weightlifter.
Considered a national sports hero, Kuo has had a remarkable year, setting two world records at the Asian Championships in April.
She carried Taiwan’s flag during the Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony, where she claimed her first Olympic gold medal.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’