On 14 May, in the hall of the Mahatma Mandir Convention Centre in Gandhinagar, Pang Un-chol loaded 174 kilograms onto the bar and lifted it clean. The clean and jerk stood as a world record. Pang Un-chol set a new world record in the clean and jerk with 174 kilograms, and his total of 304 kilograms would have been enough to win the 2025 World Championship. He left Gandhinagar with three golds and a mark that had never been made before.
How it was decided
The contest was over before the heaviest bars arrived. In the absence of world champion Wang Hao of China and Theerapong Silachai of Thailand, Pang dominated the men's -60kg competition, winning gold in all three disciplines with a total of 304 kilograms, 130 in the snatch and 174 in the clean and jerk. He opened his account in the snatch with 130 kilograms, the best of the field. Then he turned to the second lift, where the record lay.
The margin was not close. Malaysia's Aniq Kasdan won three silver medals, finishing 27 kilograms behind Pang in the total. Vietnam's Lại Gia Thành took the bronze on 267 kilograms. The 174 was more than a winning lift. It reset the ceiling of the category, and it did so cleanly, on a single successful attempt that drew the eye of everyone in the room.
Around Pang, his federation pressed its advantage. North Korea finished second in the medal table with seven golds by total result, behind only China. Their lifters set records across several bodyweight classes. Pang's was the lightest and, in its way, the most complete.
A step in the line
The result reads differently once the recent past is set beside it. North Korea's Un Chol Pang, the World Championship bronze medallist, dominated the men's 60kg category, creating a new world and Asian record in the clean and jerk with a lift of 174 kilograms. The step from world bronze to a world record inside a year is a short sentence that hides a long climb. His Gandhinagar total would have changed the colour of that world medal.
Born on 19 January 2001, Pang carried the record into the books at Gandhinagar. He is one of a small number of North Korean lifters seen on the international platform, a figure known by his numbers rather than his words. He gave no interviews. He posts nothing. He arrived, he lifted, and the record moved.
There are athletes who narrate their careers. Pang Un-chol writes his in kilograms, and lets the bar speak.
