Dave Pacaldo could not make an ideal comeback in competition, finishing in 17th place after the conclusion of the 2021 World Weightlifting Championships’ men’s minus-67 kg event, Friday at the Uzbekistan Sports Complex.
The Boholano lifter skipped the Asian Championships last April and has not competed since the 30th Southeast Asian Games where he placed fourth.
Pacaldo had a rough start to his campaign after failing to raise the bar at his first two attempts at 125 kg. Eventually, however, he mustered enough strength to make the said weight for his snatch score.
The 22-year-old upstart encountered struggles anew on his first attempt at the clean and jerk at 155 kg. He managed to take up the said weight on his second attempt, but that turned out to be his final score in this second part of the competition.
The bar with 160 was too much for Pacaldo, and thus he ended up with a total of 278 — two kilos of his entry weight of 280.
The battle for the gold medal for the event heated up later in the day as Doston Yokubov made his final attempt the clean and jerk count for the hosts’ first World title. The Uzbek stalwart ended with 324 kg in total to take both the total and the clean and jerk (with 180 kg) golds.
Colombia’s Francisco Mosquera tried to snag the clean and jerk gold, but his attempt at 181 kg was a no lift. He thus had to settle for the silver in the said portion and the total.
RWF’s Zulfat Garaev ended with the bronze for the main podium with 315, where 146 of which came from his gold-medal snatch.
