Chinese weightlifter Lyu Xiaojun clinched the gold medal during the Tokyo Olympics men's 81-kilogram final on Saturday.

Lyu set new Olympic records of snatch (170kg), clean and jerk (204) and total (374kg). Nine years ago, he won men's 77kg gold medal in London while breaking the world record. Five years ago in Rio de Janeiro, Lyu lifted 177kg in snatch and 202 in clean and jerk, but lost the gold to Nijat Rahimov of Kazakhstan who was 0.64kg lighter than Lyu.

Lyu's major opponents in Tokyo was Brayan Rodallegas of Colombia. Rodallegas chose 163kg and succeeded in his first attempt. So did Zacarias Bonnat of the Dominican Republic. Lyu and Italy's Antonino Pizzolato both started with 165kg and it took them two lifts to do it.

Rodallegas and Pizzolato challenged 168kg in their last attempts and failed. Lyu went with 170kg in his third try and lifted up nice and comfortable, leading by 5kg in snatch.

Rodallegas failed his first clean and jerk lift at 195kg, but he made it 196kg in the second attempt and succeeded. Lyu tried 197kg in his first try and lifted up, beating Olympic records already in both clean and jerk and total. But Pizzolato managed to lift 200kg in his first try, trailing Lyu by only 2kg.

Lyu picked 204kg in his second attempt and again lifted up, extending his lead to 9kg in total. Pizzolato failed at 203kg in his second lift and 210kg in the last desperate attempt. That meant Lyu already sealed the title. Though he failed challenging 210kg in the last try, the 37-year-old legend still won the Olympic gold back after nine years.