There was heartbreak for local hero Mansour Al Saleem here in Riyadh, who came back out to the platform after suffering severe muscle spasms and narrowly failed with a final attempt for a 55 kilograms medal.

Al Saleem, 35, the first Saudi weightlifter ever to win a World Championships medal in 2019, was cheered off by his supporters after a sweep of fourth-place finishes.

After making his second clean and jerk, Al Saleem fell to the floor and screamed in pain.

He had to be carried off the platform but treatment to his upper left leg worked and a few minutes later he was back, trying in vain to make 147kg for clean and jerk gold.

Al Saleem made the same numbers as others in snatch, clean and jerk and total but finished fourth in all three.

Lai Gia, the 2018 junior world champion, made a career-best 123-146-269 to claim all three golds.

He has now won seven of his past 10 competitions, and failed to make a total in the other three.

Lai Gia’s team-mate Ngo Son Dinh had a sweep of silvers on 117-144-261, with Natthawat Chomchuen from Thailand third on 116-143-259.

The snatch bronze went to Thada Somboon Uan from Thailand, and the other two bronzes to his team-mate Chomchuen.

The medal events tomorrow are the men’s 61kg and the non-Olympic women’s 55kg.