North Korean weightlifter Ri Won-ju wins gold medal in men's 70kg class at 2026 Asian Games

(Nagoya = Yonhap News) Reporter Dae-ho Lee = North Korean weightlifter Ri Won-ju took the top spot at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games with overwhelming strength in the clean and jerk.

Lee Won-ju won a gold medal in the men's 70kg weightlifting competition held at the Small and Medium Business Promotion Center in Nagoya, Japan on the 26th, lifting 151kg in snatch, 198kg in clean and jerk, and 349kg in total.

This is the fifth gold medal won by the North Korean team in this competition. All five came from weightlifting.

In the snatch, Lee Won-ju, who failed at 146kg in the first time and then succeeded at 146kg in the second and 151kg in the third, finished in second place, 3kg behind Japan's Masanori Miyamoto (154kg).

However, he immediately turned around in his main event, the clean and jerk.

Lee Won-ju, who secured the gold medal by easily lifting 187 kg in the first period, lifted 192 kg in the second period and then up to 198 kg in the third period, outpacing her competitors.

The silver medal went to Miyamoto, who recorded a total of 342 kg (154 kg in snatch, 188 kg in clean and jerk), and Albert Ian delos Santos of the Philippines won the bronze medal with a total of 324 kg (141 kg in snatch, 183 kg in clean and jerk).

No Korean athletes competed in this weight class.

In the men's 75 kg finals held next, Son Hyun-ho (Jeonnam Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall), who had been highly anticipated, failed to lift all 149 kg in the first to third snatch periods and ended the competition.

In this weight class, Rahmat Erwin Abdullah (Indonesia) won the gold medal with a total weight of 366 kg (160 kg snatch, 206 kg clean and jerk), beating Wirapon Wichuma (Thailand, 365 kg) by 1 kg, and Lee Chung-song (North Korea) won the bronze medal with a total weight of 357 kg.