North Korea emerged from a self-imposed Covid exile to capture six gold medals, five silvers and two bronze in weightlifting.
HANGZHOU, China-- The superheavyweight giants wrap up the Asian Games weightlifting on Saturday but it was the North Koreans' stunning return after four years that raised eyebrows in Hangzhou.
North Korea proclaimed themselves "world leaders" at the sport, after not being seen in competition since December 2019. Jang Song Nam, manager of the North Korean weightlifting team, said the success was "payback" for their sacrifices over years of Covid isolation."Every gold medal is payback for our hardship over four years. We are world leaders now. We wanted to show our strength, and we did it."
Australian coach Paul Coffa reportedly said that their participation in Havana would be "a catastrophe for weightlifting". In the end they did not turn up.In a statement to AFP, the IWF said it can now "ban from competitions lifters representing countries where doping tests could not be taken by the IWF or any anti-doping organization with testing authority".
But it said all North Korean weightlifters had been subjected to at least one doping control in Hangzhou and two had been barred for failing to submit whereabouts reports for the past three months.
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