Chinese weightlifter Shi Zhiyong came into Tokyo with the world record at 73kg. He'll leave with an enhanced version.
Shi took it relatively easy on himself in the snatch phase, lifting 166kg and not attempting to match his world record of 169kg. But with the gold medal clinched, he went for the record in clean and jerk (198kg) and overall (364kg) and made the lift.
Venezuela's Julio Ruben Mayora, who wagged his tongue as he completed a clean and jerk of 190kg, took a shot at breaking the record right away with a lift of 199kg. He wasn't able to complete the lift, but he had already won the race for silver behind Zhi with a total of 346 kg.
In a rare occurrence, the bronze medal went to a lifter competing in the Group B session, which is reserved for the lowest-ranked participants. Indonesia's Rahmat Abdullah lifted a total of 342 kilos, good enough for third place.
U.S. lifter Clarence "CJ" Cummings also went for 198kg in the clean and jerk in an effort to leap from tenth to bronze but was unsuccessful.