Mexico's Daphne Guillen claimed victory in the women's 59kg category at the IWF Junior World Championships ©ITG

Thailand and Mexico took the titles on day three of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Junior World Championships in Heraklion, Crete.

There were exciting finishes in both the men's 67 kilograms and the women's 59kg, which were won respectively by Weeraphon Wichuma of Thailand and Daphne Guillen of Mexico.

A Colombian, Tatiana Mosquera, won a bronze medal from the B Group in the women's event, in which the 11 A Group lifters collectively had 16 no-lifts in the clean and jerk.

After so many failed attempts the top eight finishers were separated by only 10kg, and the winning total was lower than the 204kg posted by the 55kg champion Nina Sterckx, of Belgium yesterday.

Guillen, who had never stood on top of the podium before, finished on 89-114-203.

Katie Estep, the Junior Pan American Games champion at 55kg, made three from three to win the snatch on 91kg but, like her United States team mate Meaghan Strey, she failed with her first two clean and jerks.

Both Estep and Strey made their final attempts at 109kg and Estep took the silver on total with 91-109-200, while Strey finished fourth.

Mosquera, who topped the B Group with 90-109-199, was third.

Katie Estep of the United States took silver behind Guillen in the women's 59kg category ©USA Weightlifting
Katie Estep of the United States took silver behind Guillen in the women's 59kg category ©USA Weightlifting

Ukraine’s main hope, Olha Ivzhenko, had five straight no-lifts after her first snatch and did not make a total.

The sixth-placed finisher, Suratwadee Yodsarn of Thailand, won a clean and jerk bronze on 113kg after finishing well down the field in the snatch.

Thailand's women's team has outperformed the men by a long way over the years, but its male lifters appear to be improving.

Both of Thailand's youth world champions last year were males, and today one of them, 17-year-old Weeraphon Wichuma, came out on top in an exciting finish to the 67kg to add the world junior crown in only his second international appearance.

After winning the snatch with 140kg, Wichuma built a useful overall lead by matching the 171kg clean and jerk posted by Turkey's Fehmi Genc.

But in doing so, on his second attempt, he appeared to suffer a leg injury and he needed treatment before coming back for his final lift at 175kg, which he missed.

That left Genc needing to make 176kg to take the title.

Genc cleaned it and got the bar above his head but then lost it and ended up on the floor, leaving Wichuma to take the honours with 140-171-311.

Genc, a bronze medallist at this level last year, made 136-171-307 and third place went to the European junior champion Gor Sahakyan of Armenia on 137-165-302.