PARIS - Weeraphon “Wave” Wichuma, a 19-year-old from Surin province, won silver in the men's 73-kilogramme weightlifting on Thursday at the Paris 2024 Olympics, becoming the youngest athlete in the category.
First-time Olympian Weeraphon lifted a total of 346kg to finish ahead of Bulgaria’s Bozhidar Dimitrov Andreev, who claimed the bronze medal with a 344kg total at a lively South Paris Arena.
Rizki Juniansyah of Indonesia secured gold with a 354kg total, lifting 155kg in the snatch and 199kg in the clean and jerk — an Olympic record.
Weeraphon lifted 148kg on his first attempt in the snatch but failed twice in his attempts at 152kg to drop to ninth spot after the opening round and the Thai’s hopes for a podium finish began to fade.
However, Weeraphon clawed his way back into contention in the second round of the clean and jerk with his first two lifts of 190kg and 194kg respectively.
A stunning third lift of 198kg — a junior world record — catapulted “Wave” into second place, upstaging Andreev, who lifted 190kg in the clean and jerk, by 2kg.
“It has been my dream since I was a kid to win an Olympic medal and today my dream came true,” said Weeraphon.
“I made some mistakes early on in the snatch but I’m happy to win silver in my first Olympics. See you again in four years!”
Weeraphon, who turned 20 on Friday, is a six-time world championship medallist at the 2022 and 2023 tournaments. He won two gold medals in the 73kg clean and jerk and the overall title in 2023.
Weeraphon set a junior world record for a total lift of 351kg in the 73kg event at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.
China’s reigning champion Shi Zhiyong missed all three of his attempts in the clean and jerk which left him with no chance of a podium finish.
Shi led after the snatch round with a lift of 165kg — 10kg more than his closest rivals.
But it all ended in heartbreak for the two-time Olympic gold medallist, who won the 69kg gold at Rio 2016, after he failed to complete any of his clean and jerk attempts at 191kg.
Theerapong Silachai and Surodchana Khambao won silver and bronze medals in the men’s 61kg and the women’s 49kg events on Wednesday, the first day of the weightlifting competition.
The weightlifting team will now hope to end their Paris campaign with a fourth medal on Saturday when Duangaksorn Chaidee, the last Thai athlete in the discipline, competes in the women’s over 81kg division.
Thailand has so far won six medals at Paris 2024 — one gold (taekwondo), three silver (two weightlifting, one badminton) and two bronze (one each in weightlifting and boxing).
