They failed to take advantage of chances to win gold with the last lift at 61kg and 67kg, with both contests won by Olympic champions from China, Li Fabin and Chen Lijun.

On a day of drama there was also a surprise medal for Lee Sangyeon, the South Korean with a huge army of fans, and a first bombout in 17 years for the Indonesian Eko Yuli Irawan.

Li Fabin, who was low on energy after winning the world title four weeks ago and felt unwell before the 61kg, missed his last two lifts.

That gave Pak Myongjin the chance to claim a third straight gold medal for North Korea’s team, who had not competed internationally for four years before travelling to Hangzhou. But the 20-year-old failed on 175kg.

Then Chen Lijun, the 67kg champion in Tokyo, waited while the debutant Ri Wonju tried and failed to make 190kg for victory. North Korea had to settle for silver and bronze in the first contest and silver in the second.

Yesterday the North Korean women had claimed two golds and five world records.

"Yesterday PRK shocked us, to be honest," said Li. "They have put great pressure on us.

"We are all very surprised. PRK has not participated in competitions for several years. Why can it reach such a high level? Why is our team still at the same level?

"I hope that the Chinese team can summarise the reasons."

Pak’s only previous international competition was the 2019 Asian Youth Championships which he won with a total of 221kg. Today he made 136-171-307, finishing 3kg behind Li on 143-167-310.

When third-placed Kim Chungguk made his final attempt he denied John Ceniza the chance to become the first male medallist from the Philippines in decades.

Pak and Kim looked downhearted afterwards and Kim admitted that he had made mistakes in posting 127-171-298.

On National Day, a public holiday in China, Li was relieved. "I am 30 years old, and I have been losing weight continuously, so the high-intensity pace makes me very tired," he said.

Li had been vomiting before winning the world title in Saudi Arabia last month, and today he had similar symptoms and a dry throat.

"I will go to the hospital for a check-up after the Asian Games to see what the problem is," he added.

"Or I may not want to since I’m afraid I will be diagnosed with a disease. I am still hesitating."

Chen said he was confident that 21-year-old Ri would not make 190kg, a jump of 10kg, in his first competition.

"But I would have been worried if he needed 185kg because he is very strong," Chen said.

Chen made 150-180-330 and Ri finished on 141-180-321.

In third place was Lee Sangyeon, who edged out Doston Yokubov from Uzbekistan by making his final clean and jerk at 180kg.

Lee has more than 200,000 fans on Instagram but said he did not expect his following to grow because it is based on daily videos of his squats and lifts in training.

He had also been unwell before lifting. "I did not expect to win a medal because I felt in bad shape and wasn’t even sure I would be able to compete," he said.

Irawan, whose career began in 2006 and will end - he hopes - with a fifth Olympic medal in Paris next year, had his first bombout when he failed with all three clean and jerks.

His schedule since May has featured the South East Asian Games, an Olympic qualifier in Cuba, the World Championships and now the Asian Games - a lot to ask of a 34-year-old.