North Korea's Ri Song-gum has set a new women's world record in the 49 kg category after lifting a combined 216 kg at the Hangzhou Asian Games as her country returns to international multi-sport competition for the first time since 2018.
4'7'' tall (140cm) Ri lifted 92kg in the snatch and 124 kg in the clean and jerk, surpassing by 1 kg the previous world record set by Jiang Huihua three weeks ago at the World Championships in Saudi Arabia.
25-year-old Ri's victory comes five years after she first won gold at the Asian Games in Jakarta in the 48 kg category, which no longer exists.
Jiang took silver with a combined lift of 213 kg, and Thailand's Thanyathon Sukcharoen took a surprise bronze with 199 kg after India's Mirabai Chanu, the Olympic silver medallist, failed twice to clean and jerk 117 kg and had to settle for fourth. 19-year-old Rosegie Ramos from the Philippines finished fifth with a total weight of 190 kg.
North Korea has not competed in any international multi-sport competition since the 2018 Jakarta games after it closed its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was banned from the 2022 Beijing Olympics after skipping the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (rescheduled to take place in 2021), but that restriction was lifted late last year.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea Anti-Doping Committee was declared non-compliant by the World Anti-Doping Agency in February 2019 before briefly regaining its status and again being declared non-compliant in October 2021 after WADA found 'non-conformities' in its testing procedures.
Resulting WADA sanctions banned flying the North Korean flag at any major sporting event except the Paralympics and Olympics, but it has been flown during the Hangzhou games (at which Ri's medal was North Korea's fourth gold, following An Chang-ok's two gymnastic wins and a women's shooting team victory).
Acting President of the Olympic Council of Asia Radhir Singh has defended that decision and said that OCA is in conversation with WADA about the issue. WADA affirmed in a statement that North Korea is non-compliant and warned that if needed it will take necessary action "against any signatory that fails to implement the consequence."
