Rizki Juniansyah Gives Second Gold For Indonesia At The 2024 Olympics

JAKARTA Lifter Rizki Juniansyah presented the second gold medal for Indonesia after being the best in the men's 73 kilogram class at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Rizki took the highest podium with a total force of 354 kilograms (snatch 135 kilograms and clean and jerk 199 kilograms) on Friday, August 9, 2024, early morning WIB.

The force in clean and jerk made Rizki at the same time break the Olympic record belonging to Chinese athlete Shi Zhiyong, with an class of 198 kilograms made at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The total lift gave Rizki the lead over Thailand's representative, Weeraphon Wichuma, who brought home silver. Weeraphon has a total force of 346 kilograms (snatch 148 kilograms and clean and jerk 198 kilograms).

Meanwhile, Bozhidar Andreev won the bronze medal. This Bulgarian lifter has a total lift of 344 kilograms (snatch 154 kilograms and clean and jerk 190 kilograms).

Rizki failed in the first and third snatch. In the first batch, he tried with 155 kilograms, while the third batch was 162 kilograms.

Rizki's best batch in the snatch was 155 kilograms carried out on the second try. This figure is 10 kilograms adrift of his toughest competitor, Zhiyong, with an lift of 165 kilograms.

Zhiyong's 165 kilograms force made it on the second occasion. He started with 161 kilograms also successful, but failed with 168 kilograms on the third occasion.

Zhiyong was then hit by bad luck in the clean and jerk class. He did not get a medal after failing in three attempts with the same weight of 191 kilograms.

Indonesia had previously brought home two medals, one bronze each and one gold medal.

The bronze medal was won by the women's singles badminton player Gregoria Mariska Tunjung. Meanwhile, the gold medal was pocketed by the rock climbing athlete, Veddriq Leonardo.

Indonesia now only has one athlete who has not competed, namely lifter Nurul Akmal. The female class lifter number +81 kilograms will only compete on Sunday, August 11, 2024.