Bonnie Bunyau Gustin
Malaysian Bonnie Bunyau Gustin blew away his rivals to lift the gold medal in the men’s up to 72kg category competition at the World Para Powerlifting World Cup in Bangkok.
The 21-year-old’s massive 226kg lift not only saw his setting a personal best but also put himself atop the Tokyo 2021 Paralympic qualification list.
Bonnie went on to make an attempt at the world record of 229 with a 229.5kg attempt with fourth powerlift, but failed to make it.
In the competition proper, Bonnie made clean lifts of 210kg, 220kg and 226kg, with none of his rivals managing to break the 205kg mark. Second placed Nader Moradi of Iran managed a 204 in his first lift but failed in his subsequent 211kg and 212kg attempts.
Kazakhstan’s Alexandr Daskov was a distant third with a 140kg lift.
Bonnie’s impressive lift in Bangkok was even better than Lu Lei’s 221kg gold medal effort at the Rio Paralympics five years ago.
Bonnie who is the reigning World and Asia-Oceania champion did not take part in the first two legs of the series in Bogota and Manchester earlier. But he made a strong statement that he would be the strongest best bet for the gold in Tokyo.
The winners of the last two World Cups earlier this year were also not in the same league as Bonnie. Tursunbaev Iskandar of Uzbekistan was the winner in Manchester with a 203kg lift while Telesca Donato was the winner in Bogota with a 183 attempt.
Prior to this, Bonnie had his moment of glory at the Nur-Sultan 2019 World Para Powerlifting Championships when he surprised everyone with double world titles.
After clinching the men’s up to 65kg junior title on opening day, Gustin went on to shock Paralympic champions Paul Kehinde and Liu Lei on his way to his first senior major title. He lifted a massive 207kg for the up to 65kg gold.
His father Jenang was an international Para powerlifter who had participated in the Kuala Lumpur 2010 Worlds, while his elder brother Bryan Junancey Gustin was a national athlete.
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