Pak claims gold for North Korea

Pak Hyon Suk won North Korea's first Olympic gold medal in Beijing when she won the women's 63kg weightlifting.

Pak was nearly eliminated after twice failing to clean and jerk 135kg, but made it at the third attempt to match the Olympic record and claim gold.

She earlier lifted 106kg in the snatch for a total of 241kg, just 1kg ahead of Irina Nekrassova of Kazakhstan.

Lu Ying-chi of Taiwan took bronze with 231kg, while Britain's Michaela Breeze suffered a back injury to finish 15th.

Pak's total of 240kg was just 1kg behind the Olympic record set in Sydney in 2000 by China's Chen Xiaomin.

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With world champion and world record-holder Liu Haixia not competing because the Chinese decided to concentrate on other weight categories, Svetlana Tsarukaeva was favourite to win gold.

But the Russian crashed out after three failed attempts to lift 107kg in the snatch and ended in tears after knocking her head on the wall as she departed.

Nekrassova took the lead after the snatch when she managed 110kg, but her 130kg in the clean and jerk was not enough to deny Pak.

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Beijing 2008 - weightlifting
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