Records fall in Olympic weightlifting

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LONDON, Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Rim Jong Sim won the third weightlifting gold medal of the Olympics for North Korea Wednesday, coming away with a victory in the women's 69-kilogram class.

The North Koreans are just one gold medal behind the powerful Chinese weightlifting team, which kept its lead thanks to a world record-setting performance Wednesday from Lu Xiaojun in the men's 77-kilogram division.

Rim was tied for the lead going into the finals, but nobody could match the 146 kilograms she lifted in the clean and jerk. That gave her a total of 261 kilograms.

Three others lifted 256 kilograms so the medals were handed out based on body weight. The lightest of the three, Roxana Daniela Cocos of Romania, took the silver and Maryna Shkermankova of Belarus received the bronze.

Lu set two world records in his march to the gold medal -- the 204 kilograms he lifted in the clean and jerk and the 379 total kilograms for which he was credited.

He beat another Chinese lifter, Lu Haojie, by 19 kilograms. Cuba's Ivan Cambar Rodriguez finished third.