PARIS   -   Chinese young gun Luo Shifang won the 59kg Olympic weightlifting title at the Paris Games on Thursday with a total of 241kg, setting Olympic records in the snatch and clean and jerk.

In a classic battle of youth against experience, 23-year-old Luo came out on top against Canada’s Maude Charron and Taiwan’s defending champion Kuo Hsing-Chun. “I’m looking forward to the next 10 years, and I am looking forward to getting better in the next 10 years,” Luo told reporters after receiving her gold medal.

Charron, the 31-year-old who won the 64kg title in Tokyo three years ago but had to move down after the class was removed from the Olympic programme, took silver with a total of 236kg. Kuo, 30, narrowly missed out on second place and had to settle for bronze with a total of 235kg.  “When we started, my coach told me... this could be my last competition and just to do my best. But when it was my turn, I was shocked to see lots of people here,” Kuo said.

“It gave me courage and this really touched my heart. They took me back to when I was younger and I will remember this forever. I appreciate everyone who came today to support me,” she added. The standard in the class has risen considerably since Tokyo and the lifters knew that big numbers would be needed for a place on the podium in Paris.

Five lifters surpassed Kuo’s Olympic record of 103kg in the snatch after Ukraine’s Kamila Konotop raised the bar by lifting 104 on her first attempt. With the stakes rising, Luo raised the bar to 105 on her second attempt, a weight later matched by Colombia’s Yenny Alvarez and Kuo. Charron managed 106kg in her third attempt but Luo took the lead, and the record, on her final attempt with 107kg.The world champion and world record holder Luo broke the Olympic record in the clean and jerk with a lift of 134kg.

Luo took her time, paused in the squat, paused again with the bar on her chest, then raised it above her head and pumped her fists in celebration after the green light came on to indicate a clean lift.Kuo failed at 137kg with her final lift when the bar slipped behind her head to allow Luo, already guaranteed gold, to pass on her final attempt at the same weight as she waved to the crowd packed into the Paris Expo arena, who responded with a long ovation.

US sprinters laid down an Olympic relay gauntlet to their rivals on Thursday ahead of a possible Noah Lyles sprint double, while marathon swimmers took the plunge into the River Seine.As the Paris Games builds to a crescendo this weekend, LeBron James leads his dream team of US superstars into a semi-final against a Serbia powered by Nikola Jokic, the NBA’s three-time most valuable player.

Before then, the American men and women both powered through their 4x100m relay heats to warn off any rivals aiming to challenge their dominance.Stung by having to settle for 100m silver, Sha’Carri Richardson ran her anchor leg in an eye-popping 9.99sec to see the women home while the men could afford to leave out Lyles and still cruise to victory.

Veddriq Leonardo struck gold in the inaugural men’s speed climbing eventto give Indonesia their first Olympic title in a sport other than badminton at the Paris Games.The 27-year-old defeated China’s Wu Peng by just two hundredths of a second, scaling the 15-metre wall at the Le Bourget venue in 4.75 seconds. However American teenager Sam Watson set a new world record in the battle for bronze.Watson, 18, had lost to Wu in the semi-finals but came back with a spectacular time of 4.74 seconds to finish third.Watson lowered his own world record for the fourth time this year. Leonardo had been the first man to break the five-second barrier in April 2023.

Eight-time champions India came from behind to collect their 13th men’s Olympic hockey medal with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Spain in the bronze medal match on Thursday. Harmanpreet Singh scored two penalty corners after Marc Miralles had given Spain the lead at the Yves du Manoir Stadium in Colombes, northwest of Paris.

It is India’s fourth bronze medal, and second in succession following Tokyo, and adds to those eight golds, the last of which came in 1980, and three silvers. India had won seven of their previous 10 encounters with three-time champions Spain but after a cagey first half they found themselves trailing when Miralles fired an 18th minute penalty stroke past the ‘Wall of India’ Sreejesh Raveendran, playing his 336th and final international.

Borja Lacalle almost made it two, beating Sreejesh only to see his shot rebound off the post. With the country´s richest man Mukesh Ambani supporting from the stands, India began to press hard and with just a few seconds remaining of the first half, Harmanpreet buried a penalty corner to level the scores.

Three minutes after the break, Harmanpreet repeated the trick, sweeping another penalty corner just inside the Spanish post.  It was his tenth goal of the tournament, making Harmanpreet the top scorer at these Olympics.  Spain picked up the tempo in the final quarter, forcing a series of late penalty corners and one outstanding save from Sreejesh which ensured that India would take the bronze medal, the country’s fourth medal in Paris.