Featherweight (≤61 kilograms), Men

The men’s weightlifting competition in Tokyo started as always with the lightest weight class. With the 56 kg class being discontinued after the Rio Games, this was now the 61 kg class and was the “heaviest” lightest weight ever contested. Between 1920-36 it was 60 kg, and between 1948-2016 the lightest weight was at weights between 52 and 56 kg.

There were two clear favourites in China’s Li Fabin and Indonesia’s Eko Irawan. Li was the reigning 2019 world champion, and won silver behind Irawan in 2018. Li was also the winner of the last two Asian Championships in 2019 and 2020 (held in April 2021), and was the reigning world record holder in snatch (145 kg) and total (318 kg). Irawan, competing in his fourth Olympics, was world champion in 2018 and the gold medallist (in the 62 kg category) at the 2018 Asian Games, when China was suspended by the International Weightlifting Federation. Irawan was also the world record holder in clean & jerk with 174 kg. Other participants included Thạch Kim Tuấn, gold medallist at the 2010 Youth Olympics and world champion in 2017 (both 56 kg class), Seraj Al-Saleem, season best 286 kg, and silver medallist at the last Asian Championships, Igor Son, qualification best 286 kg, and silver medallist at the last World Championships, and Shota Mishvelidze, qualification best 293 kg, silver medallist at the 2021 European Championships. The gold medallist at the last European Championships, Stilyan Grozdev, was not present in Tokyo as the Bulgarian federation was restricted to two male and two female lifters over all classes following more than ten doping violations. Also, not present in Tokyo was Francisco Mosquera (Colombia), season best 280 kg, world champion 2017 (62 kg) and bronze medallist at the last World Championships, who had previously missed the 2016 Olympics due to an injury. Ferdi Hardal (Turkey), with a season best 287 kg, and bronze medallist from the 2021 European Championships, also originally qualified for Tokyo. Mosquera was ranked fourth and Hardal ranked eighth, but their federations did not select them because of the restriction following many doping offences.

When Li and Irawan started with their snatch attempts all other competitors had already ended all their attempts with Yoichi Itokazu being in the lead with 133 kg. Irawan lifted 137 kg in his first attempt while Li failed at the same weight, but Irawan was not able to lift 141 kg in his next two attempts, while Li cleared 137 kg with his second and 141 kg with his third lift. This gave Li a margin of 4 kg before the clean & jerk; here again all other lifters had already finished their attempts with Son lifting 163 kg in his last attempt after Itokazu had already missed 162 kg in his final lift. That put Son in the bronze medal position, but he had to wait until Shota Mishvelidze and Seraj Al-Saleem had finished their attempts as both tried to lift weights good enough for bronze, but both failed. While Itokazu finished fourth, Irawan managed 165 kg in his first attempt, but as Li countered with 166 kg and also lifted 172 kg, Irawan had to go for a new world record, but missed the remaining two attempts over 177 kg. This gave Li gold and Irawan his second silver medal to go with the one he collected in 2016. Together with his two bronze medals from 2008 and 2012, Irawan’s medal tally increased to four, which made him the first and only Indonesian to win four medals at the Olympics. Remarkable was Li’s 166 kg clean & jerk lift, when he shifted his weight onto one leg and sticking out his right leg bringing it completely up off the ground, a move he had already shown in other competitions and called by his fans the “flamingo lift”. He said he is doing this to correct his balance, not to impress the jury or the crowd.

The Olympic Standard for Olympic records was 142 kg for snatch, 171 kg for clean & jerk, and 310 kg for total. The standard was not reached in snatch, but in clean & jerk and total, Li established a record with 172 kg and 313 kg, respectively. China won its second gold medal at the Tokyo Games and Indonesia won its second medal with silver, after Windy Aisah won bronze the day before.