North Korea’s Om Yun-Chol celebrates after breaking the world record in clean and jerk in men’s 56kg weightlifting event on Saturday. (Source: Reuters)

By Reuters and AP

Om Yun Chol might be one of the smallest men competing at the Asian Games but he is also one of the strongest — able to lift more than three times his own bodyweight. Only a handful of men have ever achieved the superhuman feat — putting the diminutive North Korean in elite company of musclemen.

Built like a jockey, standing just 1.52 metres (five feet) tall and weighing 56 kilograms (123 pounds), Om is already the Olympic champion, having won gold in London two years ago, and the world champion following his success in Poland last year. On Saturday, he added the Asian Games title, with a world record to boot, lifting 170kg in the clean and jerk. He also lifted 128kg in the snatch, for a total of 298kg, an Asian record that had the crowd at the Moonlight Garden festival in South Korea roaring in admiration, a feat just as remarkable for an athlete from the peninsula’s reclusive north.

“I am very happy,” he told reporters after draping himself in the North Korean flag as the strains of his country’s national anthem were played. “Whenever our people face difficulty, we come together and make it through the rough time.” Om’s world record broke the previous mark which he also owned and had already broken twice before, the first time in London and then the second time at last year’s Asian championships in Kazakhstan.

Supreme show

His performance in London was the one that really thrust him into the world’s spotlight. He won the gold medal even though he was competing in the “B’ group of 56kg lifters, who are not considered to have a chance of winning. Although he did not exactly cash in on his success, he was given an apartment when he got back home. There was a real element of drama in Saturday’s competition, which was no sure thing after Vietnam’s Thach Kim Tuan hoisted 134kg in the snatch, giving him a 6kg lead over Om. He lifted 160kg in the clean and jerk, briefly giving him a new Asian record for combined total, only to be overshadowed by Om’s final supreme show of strength. In the women’s 48kg category, Margarita Yelisseyeva of Kazakhstan won the other weightlifting gold with a combined weight of 194kg.

At the end of the first day, hosts South Korea topped the medal table with five golds and a total of 13 medals. Powerhouse China was second with five golds and 11 medals overall. Mongolia is third with two golds, one silver and one bronze.

South Korea dominated in fencing, winning both gold and silver in the men’s epee individual and women’s saber individual. Lee Ra-jin edged out teammate and Olympic gold medallist Kim Jiyeon to win the saber gold, while Olympic bronze medallist Jung Jin-sun defeated teammate Park Kyong-doo in the epee. “It was pressuring at first because the fencing matches were placed at the beginning of the Asian Games,” Jung said. “But if we get to the end in this condition, I think we will be able to win eight, nine or even 10 gold medals.”

Kim said she was only slightly disappointed to have lost to another South Korean fencer.

“It’s true that I used up a lot of energy in the semifinal round, but I’d like to think that I lost because Lee Ra-jin played well,” Kim said.

Two bronzes were awarded in both events, split between fencers from China, Vietnam and Singapore.

Both of Mongolia’s golds came in judo, with Tumurkhuleg Davaadorj winning the men’s 66kg class and Urantsetseg Munkhbat taking the women’s 48kg competition. Japan’s Misato Nakamura won the women’s 52kg class and Yeldos Smetov took gold in the men’s 60kg.

In women’s football, highly favored North Korea downed minnows Hong Kong 5-0.

In cycling, China and South Korea split the golds in the team sprint, with the hosts winning the men’s competition and China taking the women’s.