Young weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan won a hat-trick of gold medals and broke two world youth records in the men\'s 56kg category at the Asian Youth Weightlifting Championship in Pattaya, Thailand on September 6.

Thach Kim Tuan

Tuan, who won a gold medal at the Youth Olympics in Singapore last August, snatched 127kg for gold, beating the previous record set by China\'s Chenxiong.

The Ho Chi Minh City-born lifter then took another gold in the clean-and-jerk with a 150kg lift, and broke the world youth record with a total of 277kg.

At the World Youth Weightlifting Championships in Penang, Malaysia, in July, the 17-year-old took home one silver and two bronze medals.

The teenager has made rapid progress since last year, surpassing his personal best by 21kg.

At the Youth Olympics in Singapore, he managed a total of 256kg before lifting 273kg at the World Youth Championship 11 months later, and he upped that by 4kg yesterday.

Tuan has been widely tipped to replace Vietnam\'s most famous weightlifter, Hoang Anh Tuan, who won a silver medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in the men\'s 56kg category.

In 2009, Ho Chi Minh City\'s Tuan won three silver medals with a snatch of 91kg, 116kg in the clean and jerk and a 207kg total lift in the men\'s 50kg division at the World Youth Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand.