JAKARTA: Rim Un Sim blew away a quality field Saturday to win North Korea’s sixth 2018 Asian Games weightlifting gold and then declared her big sister would complete a glittering family double.
After kicking off the sister act by adding the 69kg class gold to her Asian Championship and Universiade titles, Rim said she was looking forward to watching her sibling win the 75kg competition on Sunday. “I am very confident about the chances of ‘Onni’ (‘big sister’) tomorrow,” the 22-year-old said of Olympic champion Rim Jong Sim, who is three years her senior. “I predict she will win gold also,” Rim said, after breezing to a 13kg win over Hung Wan-ting of Taiwan. Her cheerful demeanor chatting to reporters after victory was light years away from her stern “game face” during the competition.
There had not been a flicker of joy or even a wave to the crowd from Rim after her final massive clean and jerk of 137kg gave her a huge winning total of 246kg. But her emotions finally got the better of her as the North Korean anthem rang around the Jakarta International Expo arena for the sixth time in six days of competition.
The tears cascaded down her cheeks as her country’s flag was raised and she returned to a well-worn script to explain why. “I was thinking of the motherland and our supreme leader Kim Jong Un,” she said.
Rim added: “My sister told me that we should give back the love that we received from our supreme leader. I think I contributed a little to that.”
She said her focus now is to try to emulate her sister and become an Olympic champion.
South Korea had two entries and had harbored hopes of upsetting their neighbors from across the heavily fortified border.
But Mun Yu-ra could only finish a disappointing third on 231kg, while Kim Suh-Yeon was fourth after appearing to pass out dramatically during one of her lifts.
As Kim pushed the bar above her head on her second clean and jerk attempt at 130kg she appeared to faint and lay motionless for a moment.
Paramedics rushed on stage but she was able to get up and bravely returned a few minutes later to complete a gritty final lift at the same weight to clinch fourth place.
Hung then showed fierce determination to lift 130kg with her final attempt to snatch the silver from Mun.
With just four of the 15 medals to be decided on Sunday and Monday and traditional powerhouse China banned by the International Weightlifting Federation for doping, North Korea is dominating with six golds, one silver, and a bronze so far.  Iraq, Iran, the Philippines, Taiwan and hosts Indonesia all have one gold medal apiece.