The bar settled at 183 kilograms on He Yueji's third clean and jerk, and with it a world record. The lift closed a total of 329 kilograms and won the men's 65kg gold at the 2026 Asian Weightlifting Championships in Gandhinagar. He Yueji, the 23-year-old from China, left the platform having rewritten the ledger for his category.
The competition turned on how he built the number. In the snatch he opened at 141 kilograms, made 146 on his second attempt, then missed 150. That 146 gave him the lead but not the cushion he wanted. The clean and jerk decided everything: 173, then 179, then 183. He did not fail a single one. The 183 clean and jerk was itself a world record, and along the way his total passed through 325 before finishing at 329, both marks setting new bests.
Behind him the field pressed and fell short. Pak Myong-Jin of North Korea took silver on 321 kilograms, having gone clean through the snatch to 144 but missing his final two jerks at 182. He Yueji's compatriot Ding Hongjie completed the podium on 319, also stalled twice at the top end of the clean and jerk. The margin was eight kilograms to the nearest rival, decided not by one heroic attempt but by a card of near-perfect execution while others faltered.
The measure of the meet
The organisers weighed the whole championship and found him at its summit. Ri Suk of North Korea was named Women's Best Lifter on 1013.191 ROBI points, and in the men's section He Yueji was adjudged Best Lifter with 1052.189 points in the 65kg category. It is the sport's way of saying that no man in Gandhinagar lifted better relative to his bodyweight.
A trajectory, resolved
The result reads as an arrival rather than a surprise. Born on 11 July 2002, He Yueji has spent his early career gathering medals a step below the top. He took bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Bogotá, lifting 296 kilograms at 61kg, and returned to the world podium for bronze again in 2025. That autumn, in Førde, he moved up to 71kg and claimed the snatch small gold with 160 kilograms, a world record of its own. He had also worn the Asian title before, winning the 2023 edition in Jinju at 67kg with a total of 320.
What changed in Gandhinagar was the finality. The bronze medallist who kept climbing weight classes now holds the world record in his own. He has stopped chasing the number. He is the number.
