The multiple world record-holder and double Olympic champion missed two lifts for the first time since 2015, and after he made 251 kilograms to claim the men's super-heavyweight gold on total he had to watch two men try to overtake him in the clean and jerk, Man Asaad of Syria and Ali Davoudi of Iran.

Asaad got the bar above his head and was so close to finishing off the lift, but he dropped it - and Davoudi was never close, so Talakhadze had yet another sweep of golds on 215-251-466.

"Yes, I had to fight for it, but I will come back and win again next time," he said.

The giant Georgian weighed in at 166.5kg, about 10kg lower than last time and 16kg below his weight when he won the world title last year.

He lost weight on his doctor's advice, when a very minor heart irregularity was detected, he said, and he had suffered a leg injury in his preparations.

The exertions of competing at altitude also appeared to take a toll, as Talakhadze took on oxygen before the medal ceremony, but he was fine and said, "I will be back stronger."

The crowd jeered when Talakhadze’s first clean and jerk at 245kg was ruled a no-lift, and the Georgians' challenge failed.

It was a no-lift "due to a pause during the extension of the arms" - and Talakhadze admitted that he had given the referees cause to make their decision.

Gor Minasyan, who switched nationality from Armenia to Bahrain, was second only 4kg behind.

Minasyan, 28, missed his last snatch and first clean and jerk, and got closer to Talakhadze than he has ever been.

In third place was Varazdat Lalayan of Armenia, who earned a huge cheer from a noisy crowd when he avoided a bomb-out by making his final clean and jerk at 246kg to finish 215-246-461.

Asaad, the Olympic bronze medallist, took the clean and jerk bronze and finished fifth on 198-247-449, a place behind Davoudi on 202-247-449.

There were plenty of other Olympic medallists in the line-up, including the first two finishers at 109kg in Tokyo, Akbar Djuraev of Uzbekistan and Simon Martirosyan of Armenia, who understandably were the lightest athletes in a field of 10 at 124kg and 127kg.

Djuraev withdrew - his presence still counts as a “participation” in qualifying - and Martirosyan made only two good lifts in his 190-235-425.

He made 10kg more than that as a 109kg lifter when he won the 2018 IWF World Championships.

The best lifter awards at the World Championships went to Chinese lifters, Jiang Huihua in the women's 49kg, with Loredana-Elena Toma of Romania second, and Li Dayin in the men's 81kg, ahead of Keydomar Vallenilla of Venezuela.

China, the United States and Colombia topped the women's team classification in that order, and the order was Colombia, Georgia and China in the men's teams.