Park Hye-jeong (20, Goyang City Hall), who dreams of becoming the ‘second Jang Mi-ran’, has reached the top of the World Championships.

Park Hye-jung swept three categories with 124kg in snatch, 165kg in clean and jerk, and 289kg in total in the women’s 87kg and over category at the ‘2023 World Weightlifting Championships’ held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the 16th (Korean time).

She is the first Hyejung Park to win three gold medals in the women’s heaviest division at the World Championships. It is a feat that even the ‘legend’ Jang Mi-ran (currently 2nd Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism), who was crowned world championship champion four times, has never experienced.

Unlike the Olympics and Asian Games, the World Championships have medals for each category.

It has been two years since a Korean athlete won the women’s heavyweight division at the World Weightlifting Championships since Son Young-hee at the 2021 Tashkent Games in Uzbekistan.

Officials from the Korea Weightlifting Federation, who supported the representative athletes in Saudi Arabia, could not hide their joy, saying, “This is a truly great achievement.” It is an even more valuable achievement as it was achieved with the participation of Li Wenwen (23, China), a Tokyo Olympics gold medalist and world record holder in three categories (148kg in snatch, 187kg in clean and jerk, 335kg in total), who was considered an ‘absolute strongman’.

Tokyo Olympic gold medalist and world record holder Lee Wen-won is the strongest woman to have ‘taken over’ the women’s heaviest weight class since her retirement from ‘weightlifting queen’ Jang Mi-ran. At the ‘2022 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships’ held in December last year, she announced her good health by taking an overwhelming first place with a total weight of 311 kg.

Lee Wen-won also swept gold medals in the snatch (140kg), clean and jerk (175kg), and total (315kg) at the Jinju Asian Weightlifting Championships last May. At the time, Park Hye-jeong lifted the snatch (127 kg), clean and jerk (168 kg), and total (295 kg). After the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) weight class reorganization (November 2018), she set the Korean record for the heaviest weight, but she lost to Lee Won-won. He missed out on the gold medal.

Park Hye-jung and Son Young-hee, who met at the Jincheon Athletes’ Village and Jinju Asian Championships venue, confessed, “Other athletes said they felt that Jang Mi-ran was a ‘giant wall’, and our view of Lee Won-won is similar.”소닉카지노

Cracks are forming in the giant wall called Li Wen Wen. Li Wen-Won failed the 130kg weight lift in the first time and tried the second time, but failed again. He withdrew before the third period. He withdrew after failing to overcome the weight of 140 kg he lifted at the Jinju Asian Championships last May.

It is difficult to see this as a decline in skill for a player in his early 20s. This has led experts to speculate that his elbow injury may be serious. The opening of the Hangzhou Asian Games is just around the corner, but looking at Li Wen-wen’s current condition, normal competition with Park Hye-jung seems difficult.

The injury of an ‘absolutely strong player’ is unfortunate, but it is a golden opportunity for Park Hye-jung. This opportunity is also possible because Park Hye-jung has grown rapidly. In the meantime, Hye-jeong Park, with the mindset that ‘her efforts will not betray,’ through her hard-working training and the enthusiasm of her instructors, has made strides towards the top level in the world, and she has finally won three gold medals at the World Championships. A feat was achieved.

Her Korean weightlifting suffered the humiliation of no gold twice in a row at the 2014 Incheon and 2018 Jakarta/Palembang Asian Games. She has not produced a gold medalist since Jang Mi-ran, the top women’s heavyweight, at the 2010 Guangzhou Games. Attention is focused on whether Park Hye-jung can lift the gold barbell in Hangzhou and usher in the ‘Park Hye-jung era’ by injecting vitality into the weightlifting world that has been thirsty for a major star since Jang Mi-ran.