The Vietnamese lifter won the snatch event with a lift of 97kg, 8kg more than the runner-up, before finishing victorious in the clean & jerk category shortly later with a best lift of 116kg.
The successes in the snatch and clean & jerk events helped Duyen claim the total lift gold medal with 213kg, 16kg ahead of the second-place finisher.
Earlier, on January 28, the Vietnamese team got off to a fabulous start thanks to the brilliance of Thach Kim Tuan, Nguyen Tran Anh Tuan, and Khong My Phuong
Kim Tuan and Tuan Anh each scored a hat-trick of gold medals in the men’s 61kg and men’s 55kg, respectively, while My Phuong contributed another in the women’s 45kg event with a snatch lift of 45kg, alongside two silvers.
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Vietnamese weightlifter Thach Kim Tuan scores a hat-trick of gold medals in the men's 61kg class.
In the women’s 49kg weight class, Vuong Thi Huyen brought home two bronze medals for Vietnam, in the clean & jerk (100kg) and total lift (181kg). This is an encouraging result for Huyen as she was promoted to compete in the 49kg category because her previous 45kg category, in which she took the gold medal at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, lies beyond the competition programme of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The 2020 Rome World Cup also acts as a qualification tournament for lifters to accumulate points towards a place in the Tokyo 2020. Vietnam’s Thach Kim Tuan, Vuong Thi Huyen and Hoang Thi Duyen all performed well in Italy and are now among the eligible athletes for the Olympics. The Olympic qualification will conclude in April with the Asian championships. Accordingly, the top eight lifters in each weight category of the world rankings will earn direct tickets to Tokyo this summer.
