The weighlifter Talha Talib, pride of Pakistan

Pakistani weightlifter Talha Talib fell just two kilograms short of history at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as he lifted a total of 320 kilograms on Sunday.

Talha Talib in Tokyo Olympics 2020

A 21-year-old weightlifter from Gujranwala was representing Pakistan in weightlifting’s 67kg event at the pandemic-postponed Games, where he lifted 150 kilograms in the snatch and 170 kilograms in clean and jerk to accumulate a total of 320 kilograms. He took part in the 67kg category and held the gold medal spot until the final round before eventually being bumped down and denied a podium finish.

The 151kg, 166kg and 170kg category

Talib’s lift of 151kg in the Snatch category was the second-best of the round. He failed in his first Clean & Jerk attempt of 166kg and even though he was successful for the same weight in his next attempt and also cleared 170kg later, his combined total of 320 was surpassed by others, including Zani, who lifted just 2kg more than Talib.

In the end, he finished fifth as China’s Lijun Chen, Colombia’ Luis Javier Mosquera Lozano, and Italy’s Mirko Zani captured gold, silver, and bronze respectively.

During Clean & Jerk, he was in the lead, giving his growing number of fans back home a ray of hope. Nevertheless, Talib’s performance despite an obvious lack of resources turned him into a hero. Twitter praised him and his name became the top Pakistani trend.

A user tweets,

Senator PTI Faisal Javed tweets,

Mahira Khan also tweets, “You’ve made us all very very proud!” with a picture of Talib from the Olympic Games.

Moreover, Asim Azhar tweets,

Waqar Zaka tweets, “I would love to sponsor him. Allow him to have access to international level equipment and diet, He’s only 21 so a potential chance for 2024 & 2028 Olympics.”

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All in all, Talha is the pride of Pakistan, he is a national hero and a remarkable gem. A gold medalist in the Commonwealth Games, finished 5th in Olympics!

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