Emily Campbell launches cartwheel celebration after bagging Olympic bronze

Emily Campbell celebrated with a cartwheel after clinching bronze in the women’s +81kg category to become the first British weightlifter to win two Olympic medals in over half a century.

The Nottingham 30-year-old set a new combined personal best of 288kg over snatch and clean-and-jerk disciplines to finish behind defending champion Li Wenwen of China, and 21-year-old Hyejeong Park of South Korea.

Campbell’s respective totals of 126kg and 162kg in each respective category were also personal bests as she finished with a cumulative score five kilograms better than the one that sealed her silver medal in Tokyo.

China’s Li, who was forced to withdraw prior to last year’s World Championship due to injury, took gold with a total of 309kg that, while some way off her best, was easily enough to see off the challenge of rising star Park by 10kg.

The 24-year-old Li celebrated by rejecting her final lift and, with the gold assured, instead lifting her coach on the stage to the delight of the capacity crowd at the South Paris Arena.