Olympics | Chinese weightlifter Li retains Olympic gold at Paris 2024

China's Li Fabin won the men's 61kg weightlifting again at Paris 2024 after his victory three years ago in Tokyo.

PARIS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's Li Fabin retained his Olympic title in the men's 61kg weightlifting division at the Paris Olympics on Wednesday.

Li, 31, succeeded in all three of his attempts in the snatch, with his third attempt of 143kg setting a new Olympic record.

In the clean and jerk, Li aimed to lift 172kg, his Tokyo Olympic record, but failed, ending with a best lift of 167kg from his second attempt.

The Chinese veteran's winning total of 310kg was 7kg more than that of second-placed Theerapong Silachai from Thailand.

"I would rate my performance 9 out of 10, the only downside is that my clean and jerk result was not very good," said Li, noting that achieving perfection at the Olympic Games is challenging.

"I had thought about retiring, but the enthusiasm of the crowd today made me hesitant to step away. Even though I'm getting older, I will probably keep pushing forward," he said.

The bronze medal went to Hampton Morris of the United States, who totaled 298kg. The 20-year-old attempted to surpass his own clean and jerk best of 176kg with a lift of 178kg on his third try, but was unsuccessful.

Indonesia's Eko Irawan, the Tokyo Olympics silver medalist, achieved a snatch result of 135kg, only behind Li, but he failed all three of his clean and jerk attempts.

The Olympic weightlifting event, which includes 120 athletes, runs from August 7 to August 11 at the South Paris Arena. ■