She won by 28 kilograms, was more than 50kg clear of bronze medallist Chitchanok Pulsabsakul of Thailand, and beat three of her 11 rivals by 100kg or more.

In a great day for Russia they won all three golds in the men's over 105kg too.

The favourite, Behdad Salimi of Iran, was below his best and Ruslan Albegov won the snatch and the total, with his team mate Alexey Lovchev taking the clean-and-jerk gold despite having failed with all three snatch attempts.

The spread of medals on the final day left North Korea top of the medals table for the first time not just in weightlifting, but in any sporting World Championship.

Kashirina is 13kg lighter than her closest challenger here, Meng Suping of China, but she did not even start lifting until Meng and the other 10 lifters had finished their three lifts in the snatch.

The target to beat was Meng's 140kg.

Rather than start on 140kg, which would have been enough for gold, Kashirina went in at 145kg, then broke her own world record with a lift of 152kg.

She made that look easy, and returned to beat it again, lifting 155kg.

That huge lead meant the contest was over already - the only question was, how many more times would Kashirina break world records.

The answer was three: two in the total and, to complete a full house, a clean-and-jerk best of 193kg.

That clean-and-jerk beat the world best set at the Incheon Asian Games six weeks ago by Lulu Zhou.

Zhou, China's number one in this over 75kg category, was not in the team here after her exertions in South Korea.

Ruslan Albegov claimed overall gold in the men's over 105kg competition ©Getty Images


Although China sent several second-choice athletes their overall effort was below expectations, with only nine golds compared to 20 last year.

"We are disappointed," said Meng.

"We must try to find out why we are not so good as before, but we will be strong again, especially in the Olympics."

Kashirina made five lifts - she did not bother with her sixth - and broke one or more world records with four of them.

The 14kg increase in the total was the biggest margin of gain in any world record since the new weight categories were introduced in 1998.

Different sports have certain barriers that, for years, many people thought impossible to break.

Roger Bannister earned global fame with his sub-four-minute mile in 1954, Dawn Fraser became the first woman to swim 100m freestyle in less than a minute in 1962, and Nadia Comaneci earned the first perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Olympics.

Could Kashirina become the first woman to lift 200kg?

"It's my goal, so we'll see," she said.

"I have lifted 195kg in training.

"I'll do my best."

Jang Mi-ran, the 2008 Olympic champion who is now retired, believes Kashirina could break the 200kg barrier.

"It was always my aim when I was competing, but I never got past 195kg in training," she said.

"Tatiana could do it, and maybe Zhou Lulu could get close too."

In the men's super-heavyweights, both the top two said they were performing well below their best.

Runner-up Salimi missed a year of training during a dispute with the national team coach, since departed, and said he was only able to perform at 80 per cent of his best.

Albegov had a back injury that interrupted his preparations.

"I could only train properly once a week, and I can do better," he said.