For the third straight contest there were more no-lifts than good lifts, for the second time in two days the host nation Colombia won a medal from the B Group, and the three medallists from last year's IWF World Championships made only five good lifts between them from 18 attempts.

Another Olympic champion, Hidilyn Diaz from the Philippines, won a world title for the first time in her long career when she finished ahead of the Colombian Rosalba Morales in the women's 55kg.

She is planning to move up to 59kg to lift in Paris, which would be her fifth Olympic Games.

Two of the men’s medal contenders said they had been affected by breathing difficulties when training and competing at such high altitude - Bogotá is 2,640 metres above sea level - and even Li failed with half of his attempts.

But at the end of the session, China had another world title as Li completed the sweep of world records by adding the clean and jerk to the snatch and total records he already held, and his team-mate He Yueji had a junior world record and a bronze medal on total.

Li had already won when he came out on his second clean and jerk to try for the world record at 175kg.

He failed that time but made it at the last attempt and finished with 137-175-312.

Sergio Massida, the 2019 youth world champion from Italy, and He went for four junior world records between them.

Only He was successful, making 160kg in the clean and jerk to take the total record, which had stood for more than four years, from Adkhamjon Ergashev of Uzbekistan.

The 20-year-old He was third overall on 136-160-296.

Massida, 20, made an impressive total of 293kg, equal to Ergashev’s old record, from only two good lifts and finished fourth on total.

The 2021 medallists had a night to forget.

The champion, Shin Rok from Korea, was struggling from his first attempt and failed to make a total; the silver medallist Shota Mishvelidze from Georgia made 285kg from two lifts to finish seventh; and the Saudi Arabian Seraj Al Saleem, third last year, was 14th on 276kg.

Not that Al Saleem, 26, needed to worry about his future. 

He won the biggest prize in weightlifting, 1 million rials ($266,000) for his victory in the first Saudi Games in October.

Eko Yuli Irawan, who was second to Li in Tokyo, made only two good lifts and lost his clean and jerk world record, but he held on to second place with 135-165-300.

Li won the snatch gold despite making only his first attempt at 137kg, finishing ahead of He and Irawan.

Irawan was second in the clean and jerk ahead of two B Group lifters, Jhon Serna of Colombia who took bronze, and Teerapat Chomchuen of Thailand who was sixth on total, a place ahead of Serna.

Simon Brandhuber, Germany’s top hope who was ninth in Tokyo, had to withdraw after testing positive for COVID-19.

In the non-Olympic women's weight category of 55kg - another with far more no-lifts than good lifts - Diaz was a clear winner on 93-114-207.

Morales was in pain throughout the clean and jerk but responded to the crowd’s cheers to finish second on 89-110-199, with the Mexican Ana Lopez third on 90-108-198.

Lopez was second in the snatch but dropped to fifth in the clean and jerk, in which the bronze went to Shoely Mego from Peru.

"It was good timing to win a World Championships at last, because that is the last time I will compete at 55kg," Diaz said.

She became the first Olympic champion in any sport for the Philippines last year and has been swamped by opportunities.

"It’s really hard when you become so famous. 

"I have been able to control it, but it’s very hard with time management.

"There are so many opportunities. 

"I do endorsements for a lot of products, I have a lot of events, I’m training hard and on top of that I’m studying.

"Just before we came here I had to defend my thesis," said Diaz, whose chosen subject was business studies at Saint Benilde, one of the top colleges in the Philippines.