Asian Games 2014: North Korean weightlifter Om Yun Chol sets world record
Asian Games 2014: North Korean weightlifter Om Yun Chol sets world record
Olympic champion Om broke his own world record for the clean and jerk on his way to North Korea's first gold medal of the Asian Games on Saturday

Om Yun Chol might be one of the smallest men competing at the Asian Games but he is also one of the strongest - able to lift more than three times his own bodyweight.

Only a handful of men have ever achieved the superhuman feat - putting the diminutive North Korean in elite company of musclemen.

Built like a jockey, standing just 1.52 metres (five feet) tall and weighing 56 kilograms (123 pounds), Om is already the Olympic champion, having won gold in London two years ago, and the world champion following his success in Poland last year.

On Saturday, he added the Asian Games title, with a world record to boot, lifting 170kg in the clean and jerk.

He also lifted 128kg in the snatch, for a total of 298kg, an Asian record that had the crowd at the Moonlight Garden festival in South Korea roaring in admiration, a feat just as remarkable for an athlete from the peninsula's reclusive north.

"I am very happy," he told reporters after draping himself in the North Korean flag as the strains of his country's national anthem were played.

"Whenever our people face difficulty, we come together and make it through the rough time."

Om's world record broke the previous mark which he also owned and had already broken twice before, the first time in London and then the second time at last year's Asian championships in Kazakhstan.

His performance in London was the one that really thrust him into the world's spotlight. He won the gold medal even though he was competing in the "B' group of 56kg lifters, who are not considered to have a chance of winning.

Although he did not exactly cash in on his success, he was given an apartment when he got back home.

There was a real element of drama in Saturday's competition, which was no sure thing after Vietnam's Thach Kim Tuan hoisted 134kg in the snatch, giving him a 6kg lead over Om.

He lifted 160kg in the clean and jerk, briefly giving him a new Asian record for combined total, only to be overshadowed by Om's final supreme show of strength.

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