Pei Xinyi, whose 17th birthday was 10 weeks ago, set a youth world record with her first-ever lift in international weightlifting, secured a senior IWF World Championships gold medal with her second, then set more youth world records and won more gold medals with the next three.

She failed with her final attempt of 135 kilograms in the women's 64kg A Group but still finished with a total of 233kg, well clear of her nearest rivals from Thailand and Colombia.

But what was especially impressive about Pei’s performance is that she is really a 59kg lifter. 

She was deliberately entered in the less pressurised 64kg for her first competition - and weighed in last night at 59.3kg.

That means she was giving away more 4kg in weight advantage to most of her rivals.

If she had shed another 300 grammes and competed instead at 59kg here on Thursday, a repeat of her 105-128-233 performance would have put her ahead of two Olympic champions, Kuo Hsing-Chun and Maude Charron, as well as her underperforming senior team-mate Luo Shifang.

Wang Guoxin, coach of the China women's team, said before the World Championships that he would not put too much pressure on the young lifters and would encourage them to learn through competitions.

"Our goal at the World Championships is to let athletes gradually find their rhythm of competing in major events," he told Xinhua news agency last week.

Did Pei learn from her performance here?

"Yes, I was nervous at the start, but very happy."

She is the youngest member of the national team, which she joined in December last year after performing well at the 2021 Chinese National Championships.

"I have learned a lot from elder members of the team, they teach me about things I don’t know and help me a lot," Pei said. 

"They have helped me to grow up and be more confident."

She said she would now compete at 59kg but was unaware of how her numbers compared with Kuo and Charron this week. 

"I was was only focused on this 64kg category," she said.

Pei, who has no history of weightlifting in her family, took up the sport seriously at junior school in 2014 before becoming a youth champion in Zhejiang Province in 2016.

Now, at her first attempt, she is a senior world champion.

Second place went to Rattanawan Wamalun of Thailand on 101-126-227, and the Pan American champion Nathalia Llamosa of Colombia was third on 101-123-224.

Llamosa took silver in the snatch and bronze in clean and jerk, while Wamalun had bronze in snatch and silver in clean and jerk.

The European and Asian champions Mariia Hanhur of Ukraine and Pham Thi Hong of Vietnam both failed to make a total in a session that featured as many no-lifts as good lifts.