Olympics-Weightlifting-China's Liu claims men's 102kg category gold

By Angelica Medina

PARIS (Reuters) -China's world champion Liu Huanhua put in a superb performance to win the 102kg weightlifting title with a total of 406kg at the Paris Games on Saturday.

Liu lifted an impressive 186kg in the snatch to put himself in a good position, but Armenia's Garik Karapetyan matched that on his third attempt to put pressure on the Chinese lifter.

However, the 22-year-old Liu came out strongly with a clean and jerk of 220kg on his first attempt. He later lifted an extra eight kgs but it was invalid due to an incorrect arm extension.

Liu then tried to break his world record total of 413kg set at the World Cup in Phuket, Thailand in April, to the rapturous applause of the crowd at the Paris Expo arena.

But despite stretching every sinew, he could not secure the bar above his head for the jerk and dropped it to the mat.

"Usually I feel I am the underdog (in the snatch). But this time it was another story. So I felt better prepared for the second part of the weightlifting (in the clean & jerk)," Liu told reporters.

"My performance was (beyond) my expectations, because when I was doing the final training I could only lift 180kg. But because of the atmosphere and all the audience here, that's why I could achieve more than I expected.

"I feel so relieved right now because before the Games I was super, super-nervous about how it would go. But I'm very glad that I could get the gold medal," he added.

Akbar Djuraev of Uzbekistan took silver with a total 404kg after only registering on his first clean & jerk with 219kg.

Belarusian Yauheni Tsikhantsou, who was competing as a neutral athlete, won bronze with 402kg.

"This was a very beautiful day, good support from the audience. I have worked three years for this (since last Games). I always believed I would win a medal. I have won it for my seven-month-old son Timothy," Tsikhantsou said.

Libya's Ahmed Abuzriba fainted on stage and received medical attention but was able to walk out to an ovation from the crowd.

The 102kg men's class is a new Olympic category for Paris after the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) reorganised the programme following the Tokyo Games.

(Reporting by Angelica Medina; Editing by Alison Williams, Ken Ferris and Christian Radnedge)