Young Vietnamese weightlifter wins Asian championships

Tung lifted 116 kg in the snatch event during his performance Friday. What surprised everyone is in the clean and jerk event, Tung lifted a whopping 147 kg, bringing his total weight lifted to 263 kg and helping him earn two gold medals.

Another Vietnamese athlete, Ngo Son Dinh, won a triple silver medals when he lifted 117 kg in the snatch event and 143 kg in the clean and jerk event. Saudi Arabia’s Mansour Al-Saleem and Kazakhstan’s Arli Chontey claimed the bronzes.

Tung, 18, won a gold medal at the 2017 National Youth Weightlifting Championships. A year later, he won three gold medals at the Asian Youth Weightlifting Championships, in which he broke the world record for a young athlete in the clean and jerk event with 128 kg.

The 2023 Asian Weightlifting Championships takes place from May 5 to 13 in South Korea. The tournament is a chance for athletes to accumulate points to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Paris.

On the first day of the competition, Vietnam also had Khong My Phuong competing in the women's 45 kg category. She failed three times at lifting 74 kg. In the women's 49 kg category, Nguyen Thi Hoai Huong failed to lift 75 kg three times.

The 2023 Asian Weightlifting Championships took place at the same time as SEA Games 32 in Cambodia, and the Vietnam national weightlifting team were divided into two groups with eight attending the Asian tournament and four the SEA Games.