Aisha Al Balooshi’s hopes of finishing among the top 10 in the women’s 58kg weightlifting at the Rio Olympic Games fell short on Monday night.
The Emirati debutant managed a total of 162kg – a top of 72kg in the snatch and 90 in the clean and jerk – to finish with the lowest aggregate among 16 competitors in the event.
Thailand’s Sukanya Srisurat, who set a new Olympic record of 110kg in the snatch, improving on Li Xueying’s 2012 mark of 108kg, took the gold with a total of 240kg, while her compatriot Pimsiri Sirikaew took the silver with a total of 232kg (102kg snatch; 130kg clean and jerk).
Chinese Taipei’s Hsing-Chun Kuo made a brave bid to upstage Srisurat by increasing the weight to 139kg for her third and final clean and jerk lift, but failed and had to settle for bronze with a total of 231kg (102kg snatch; 129kg clean and jerk).
Starting with 67kg on her first snatch attempt, Al Balooshi topped at 72kg in her third after successfully lifting 70kg in her second attempt.
The Emirati then opened with 86kg in the clean and jerk, before improving it to 90kg on her second attempt. Al Balooshi, however, failed in her third attempt at 94kg and finished with a total of 162kg.
Before the tournament, Ridha Ayachi, her coach, had seen the Olympics as a stepping stone in her development as a competitor.
“After the Olympics, we have many plans and many objectives we would like to achieve, like winning a gold medal at the Arab and West Asia championships,” Ayachi had said.
“We will take the experience from here and work even harder to achieve good results at next year’s World Championships.”
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