Rahimov breaks world record

Rahimov had to lift 214kg to win, 4kg more than Lu Xiaojun's clean and jerk word record, which he set three years ago.

Published : Aug 11, 2016 05:55 IST

Kazakhstan's Nijat Rahimov jumps for joy after he broke the clean and jerk world record in the men's 77kg category.

Kazakhstan, which lost five Olympic titles from 2008 and 2012 through retrospective doping positives, won its first gold of the 2016 Games when Nijat Rahimov broke the clean and jerk world record in the men's 77kg category.

Rahimov had to lift 214kg to win, 4kg more than Lu Xiaojun's clean and jerk word record, which he set three years ago.

He made the lift for a total of 379kg to finish ahead of Lu, who had earlier broken his own snatch world record. Mohamed Ihab of Egypt was third.

That was Egypt's first medal in men's weightlifting since 1948, but their second of the day, after Sara Ahmed's bronze in the women's 69kg.

Rahimov served a two-year doping ban after testing positive at the 2013 Universiade, when he competed for his native Azerbaijan.