Thach Kim Tuan takes all the three gold medals of the 56kg category

Tuan’s victory was predictable as many of his strong opponents, including those from China, Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Ukraine, had been imposed with a one-year ban by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) for their involvement in doping cases.

Meanwhile, reigning world 56kg champion, Om Yun Chol, from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was not granted a visa to the US for the title defence, thus making Vietnam’s Thach Kim Tuan and Tran Le Quoc Toan emerge as the odds-on favourites for the overall crowns.

That fact was clearly manifested throughout the 56kg competition, as Tuan performed overwhelmingly compared to other competitors in the same weight category.

In the snatch discipline, the Vietnamese star failed to lift 129kg in his third attempt, but the second-attempt level of 126kg was also enough for him to pocket the gold medal. The silver medal went to Tuan’s fellow countryman, Quoc Toan, who lifted 7kg fewer than Tuan.

Mingmoon Witoon of Thailand posed a tougher challenge to Tuan in the clean & jerk event, but with his stable form and experience, Tuan managed a 153kg lift to settle for his second gold medal, 1kg above Witoon and 2kg from the bronze medalist Quoc Toan.

The snatch and clean & jerk triumphs helped Tuan to claim the remaining gold medal of the 56kg category with a total lift of 279kg, ahead of Quoc Toan with 270kg and Mingmoon Witoon with 267kg.

This is the first time in history that Vietnamese weightlifting brought home three gold medals from the world championships.

The fabulous victory in Anaheim, US has wrapped up an extremely successful year for Thach Kim Tuan, as he was crowned the gold medalist at all the Southeast Asian (SEA Games), Asian (Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games) and world (IWF World Championships) arenas.