North's Ri Song-Hui misses gold

Was it a tactical error or physical fatigue?

Questions surround North Korea's strongest gold contender in women's weightlifting Ri Song-Hui on her performance Monday. Ri successfully lifted 95 kilograms on her first lift, followed by a successful second lift of 97.5 kg. For her third lift, she requested 100 kg but balked.

Granted, she had not wanted to sustain an injury, in the light of the fact that the 100 kg was the next standard weight increase and that she had lifted up to 110 kg during practice, her balk at her third lift cannot be easily understood.

Questions also surround her performance in the clean-and-jerk competition. While keeping silent when Ri missed her second lift due to the time limit, only after realizing she had lost her chance for gold, the North's coaching staff filed a complaint that she was delayed by an Olympic Games staff member and had missed her second lift.

The real crux of the problem was that after she had missed her second lift, why did she not increase weight for the third lift but decided to lift the 122.5 kg, which she had requested for the second lift? It is difficult to understand how Ri, who is the current holder of the world record in clean and jerk with a lift of 131.5 kg, could have been comfortable with having only cleared a weight 9 kilograms under her record.

Although the North Korean coaching staff might have thought that Mexico's Soraya Jimenez Mendivil would lift 125 kg on her third lift, which would still translate to Ri receiving the gold due to her lesser weight, the hope was dashed as Jimenez requested a 5 kg increase to 127.5 kg and took the gold.

Ri, who lodged a complaint with the officials of the Olympic Games but declined an official press conference, held up the hand of gold medallist Jimenez during the medal ceremony.

swon@donga.com