Shi fulfilled a pre-Games promise of a world record to go with the gold medal, beating his own mark with a total of 364 kilograms to win the 73kg category by a wide margin.

He won at the old 69kg weight at Rio 2016.

The silver medal went to Julio Mayora of Venezuela who, like Shi, made five of his six lifts.

Mayora looked impressive from the outset as he achieved the best Olympic result for Venezuela in weightlifting.

Remarkably, the bronze was won by a B Group lifter, the 20-year-old Indonesian Rahmat Erwin Abdullah.

Abdullah finished 20^th in his first Olympic qualifying competition, the 2018 International Weightlifting Federation World Championships, with a total of 312kg.

Today at the Tokyo International Forum he lifted 30kg more, and his 152-190 was beyond all but two of the A Group lifters.

"Lifting 190 was pretty easy," he said.

"I wanted to try 195, and maybe even 200 in my last attempt, but I have an injury in my right thigh."

His A Group rivals would not have wanted to hear those words.

One by one they tried and failed to overtake Abdullah - Bozhidar Andreev of Bulgaria, Karem Ben Hnia of Tunisia, Masanori Miyamoto of Japan and finally CJ Cummings of the United States.

It was a big disappointment for Cummings, one of the US’s main medal hopes who had defeated Mayora to win the Pan American title in April.

He was 21kg behind Shi and 11kg behind Mayora after the snatch, having failed with two of his three attempts, and then made only his first clean and jerk at 180kg.

"I feel disappointed in my performance, but I know everyone is going to say they’re proud of me," Cummings said.

"This is my first Olympics and I had high expectations for myself.

"Clean and jerk is my strong suit, so I felt like my snatches messed me up this time.

 "I had to fight uphill. The 198kg clean and jerk didn’t go my way, but it’s motivation for the future."

“I’m not done. This was a learning competition. I’ll take this and learn and grow. I’m still young, and I’ll be back.”

Shi made 166-198-364, and Mayora 156-190-346.

China has three more chances and is on course to overtake its best gold-medal haul at a single Olympic Games, which stands at five.

In the days before the competition Shi spoke of the extra pressure on lifters at the Olympic Games, which clearly affected those who tried and failed to overtake Abdullah, though not Shi himself.

"The pressure, especially the invisible pressure, is great," said the 27-year-old.

“It is not like a World Championships or an Asian Championships.

"Once you enter the Olympic Village, an invisible sense of tension will appear."

The multiple junior champion Cummings seemed to feel it, failing with four attempts, as did another promising young lifter, Marin Robu of Moldova.

Robu, 21, failed with his last two attempts after making all three snatches and finished eighth, one place in front of Cummings.

Ben Hnia had two chances to make 190 and claim the bronze, but missed both and finished sixth - the best performance by an African lifter in Tokyo so far.

Andreev and fourth-placed Briken Calja both made only three good lifts.

Calja and his coaches appeared to be unaware that he had to overtake a B Group lifter and his final clean and jerk of 190kg left him one kilogram behind Abdullah.

He still managed to become the highest placed weightlifter from Albania at any Olympic Games.