On May 12, 2025, the Asian Weightlifting Championships continued with intense competition. Chinese lifter Luo Chongyang claimed two gold medals in the men’s 81kg category — in the snatch and total. Li Dayin won the snatch gold in the men’s 89kg category.

In the men’s 81kg class, Luo Chongyang’s main rival was Indonesia’s star lifter Rahmat Erwin Abdullah, who won gold in the men’s 73kg category at the Paris Olympics and moved up to compete in the 81kg class for this event. Luo opened with a snatch attempt of 160kg — the highest opening weight in the field — but failed his first try. Abdullah succeeded in all three of his snatch attempts (150kg, 156kg, and 161kg), putting pressure on the Chinese team. Luo successfully lifted 162kg on his second attempt, overtaking Abdullah to secure the snatch gold ahead of time. He attempted 166kg on his third lift but was unsuccessful.

In the clean and jerk, Luo succeeded in his first two lifts of 195kg and 200kg, outpacing Abdullah, who lifted 190kg and 197kg. Both attempted 202kg on their third lifts but failed. South Korea’s Son Hyeon-ho, who took bronze in the snatch, succeeded in an opening lift of 200kg and then twice attempted 206kg in a bid to win on total weight but did not succeed. In the end, Luo secured the total gold and clean and jerk silver, while Son won clean and jerk gold thanks to being the first to lift 200kg.

In the men’s 89kg category, China’s Li Dayin and Pan Yunhua competed together. Li succeeded in snatch lifts of 170kg and 176kg, securing the gold early and opting out of a third attempt. North Korea’s Ro Kwang-ryol, runner-up at last year’s World Championships, showed strong form and took silver with a 168kg snatch. Pan Yunhua lifted 163kg to finish fifth.

In the clean and jerk, Li successfully lifted 203kg on his first attempt but suffered a lower back strain during his second lift at 210kg, failing both subsequent attempts. He earned silver in total and bronze in the clean and jerk. Pan succeeded at 202kg, then went all out to lift 209kg, setting new Asian youth records in both the clean and jerk and total. He failed to lift 213kg on his third attempt, taking silver in the clean and jerk and bronze in total. Ro Kwang-ryol showed outstanding clean and jerk ability, lifting 212kg to win both clean and jerk and total gold medals.