North Korea's Ri breaks women's weightlifting world record

North Korean weightlifter Ri Song Gum set a new women's 49kg world snatch record at the Asian Games in Nagoya on Wednesday.

Aiming for a third consecutive Asian Games gold medal, Ri hauled 94kg above her head in the opening snatch discipline, one kilogramme more than the previous world standard mark of 93kg.

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Ri is attempting to become only the fourth lifter, and first woman, to win three Asian Games weightlifting golds.

With the clean and jerk second discipline to come, she could join Iran's Mohammad Nassiri (1966-74), South Korea's Kim Tae-hyun (1990-98) and Iran's Behdad Salimi (2010-2018) in an elite group who all won three golds. No one has ever won four.

Indonesia's Diana Tri Wijayana and India's Mirabai Chanu were also in the medal hunt after lifts of 88kg and 87kg respectively in the first phase.