Bucharest: Taiwanese powerlifter Yang Sen won a gold, a silver, and a bronze medal in the men’s under 120-kilogram weight class at the 2025 IPF World Open Equipped Powerlifting Championships in Romania.

According to Focus Taiwan, Yang, who is of Indigenous Paiwan descent, secured his gold medal in the bench press with a lift of 340 kg, surpassing the overall weight class champion, Ukraine’s Oleksiy Bychkov, by five kilograms. Yang successfully completed lifts of 320 kg and 332.5 kg in his initial attempts in this category, before surpassing Bychkov’s final lift of 335 kg.

Yang achieved a silver medal in the squat event, a discipline where he holds the current world record of 453.5 kg, set at the 2024 World Championships in Iceland. In Romania, Yang led with a squat of 435 kg after two attempts. However, when Tilyeubyerd Saifolla of Mongolia completed a 440 kg squat, Yang attempted a 454 kg lift to break his own world record but was unsuccessful, resulting in a silver medal.

Yang’s bronze medal was in the overall lift category, totaling 1,095 kg when combining his bench press, squat, and a deadlift of 320 kg. He finished behind Bychkov and Saifolla. Despite having a 40 kg advantage in the overall standings before the deadlift, Yang placed seventh in this event after unsuccessful attempts at 332.5 kg in his final lifts. Another Taiwanese competitor, Lin Hong-lin, secured silver in the deadlift with a 365 kg lift but finished eighth overall due to lower scores in the bench press and squat.

Taiwan’s powerlifting team, consisting of eight men and eight women, has so far earned eight gold, eleven silver, and seven bronze medals at the 2025 World Championships in Romania.