Two gold medals were decided on the opening day of the powerlifting competition, with new world records posted in both the men’s up to 49kg and women’s up to 41kg categories at Riocentro Pavilion 2.
The surprise withdrawal of London 2012 Paralympic champion, Nigeria’s Yakubu Adesokan, in the men’s up to 49kg event saw Vietnam’s Van cong Le crowned the new champion, breaking the world and Paralympic records in the process.
He was made to work extremely hard, however, with Jordan’s Omar Qarada applying plenty of pressure, but Le finished with the gold medal and a new world record of 183kg.
Le broke the Paralympic record with his first attempt at 175kg but Qarada snatched the lead and the record back with a 177kg lift with his second attempt.
The pressure was then on Le as he failed with his second attempt of 179kg to remain in the silver medal position going into the final round.
However, Le lifted for the occasion with a successful 181kg effort to propel himself back into the lead and regain the Paralympic record.
Qarada then attempted to match Le’s mark at 181kg, but was unsuccessful which handed Vietnam its first gold medal of the Paralympics.
Le returned to the stage moments later to break his own world record of 182kg with a perfect lift of 183kg and was overcome with emotion as he did so.
Qarada had to settle for silver, while the bronze medal went to crowd favourite Nandor Tunkel who produced a lift of 155kg with his second attempt.
