The 1997 World Weightlifting Championships were held in Chiang Mai, Thailand from December 6 to December 14. The men's competition in the 59 kg division was staged on 7 December 1997.
Medalists
edit| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Snatch |  William Vargas (CUB) |
132.5 kg |  Stefan Georgiev (BUL) |
130.0 kg |  Le Maosheng (CHN) |
130.0 kg |
| Clean & Jerk | Stefan Georgiev (BUL) |
165.0 kg | Le Maosheng (CHN) |
165.0 kg | Sevdalin Minchev (BUL) |
162.5 kg |
| Total | Stefan Georgiev (BUL) |
295.0 kg | Le Maosheng (CHN) |
295.0 kg | Sevdalin Minchev (BUL) |
290.0 kg |
Records
editPrior to this competition, the existing world records were as follows.
| World Record | Snatch |  Hafız Süleymanoğlu (TUR) |
140.0 kg | Warsaw, Poland | 3 May 1995 |
| Clean & Jerk | Nikolay Peshalov (BUL) |
170.0 kg | Warsaw, Poland | 3 May 1995 | |
| Total | Tang Lingsheng (CHN) |
307.5 kg | Atlanta, United States | 21 July 1996 |
Results
edit| Rank | Athlete | Body weight | Snatch (kg) | Clean & Jerk (kg) | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | Rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | Rank | ||||
 |
Stefan Georgiev (BUL) |
58.60 | 125.0 | 130.0 |  |
157.5 | 162.5 | 165.0 | |
295.0 | |
| |
Le Maosheng (CHN) |
59.00 | 130.0 |  |
165.0 | |
295.0 | ||||
| |
Sevdalin Minchev (BUL) |
58.60 | 127.5 | 4 | 157.5 | 162.5 | |
290.0 | |||
| 4 | William Vargas (CUB) |
58.70 | 127.5 | 132.5 | |
155.0 | 6 | 287.5 | |||
| 5 |  Elkhan Suleymanov (AZE) |
58.55 | 120.0 | 125.0 | 5 | 150.0 | 157.5 | 5 | 282.5 | ||
| 6 |  Yurik Sarkisyan (AUS) |
58.95 | 120.0 | 7 | 142.5 | 147.5 | — | 7 | 267.5 | ||
| 7 | Sedat Artuç (TUR) |
58.50 | 120.0 | 6 | 145.0 | 8 | 265.0 | ||||
| 8 |  Chom Singnoi (THA) |
58.85 | 110.0 | 115.0 | 8 | 135.0 | 140.0 | 145.0 | 10 | 260.0 | |
| 9 |  Mohamed Osman (EGY) |
59.00 | 110.0 | 115.0 | 9 | 145.0 | 11 | 260.0 | |||
| 10 |  Kenji Tominaga (JPN) |
58.55 | 112.5 | 11 | 145.0 | 9 | 257.5 | ||||
| 11 |  Liu Te-tsung (TPE) |
58.10 | 112.5 | 10 | 140.0 | 12 | 252.5 | ||||
| 12 |  Vassiliy Lim (KAZ) |
58.10 | 105.0 | 110.0 | 12 | 135.0 | 140.0 | 13 | 250.0 | ||
| 13 | Chen Po-pu (TPE) |
58.85 | 110.0 | 13 | 135.0 | 140.0 | 14 | 250.0 | |||
| 14 | Sinchai Ketsri (THA) |
58.95 | 110.0 | 14 | 135.0 | 140.0 | 15 | 250.0 | |||
| 15 |  Johnny Hernández (VEN) |
58.95 | 105.0 | 15 | 140.0 | 16 | 245.0 | ||||
| 16 |  Tom Goegebuer (BEL) |
58.35 | 100.0 | 16 | 130.0 | 137.5 | 17 | 237.5 | |||
| — | Hiroshi Ikehata (JPN) |
58.65 | — | 152.5 | 160.0 | 4 | — | ||||
| — |  Jyrki Welling (FIN) |
58.85 | — | 152.5 | — | 18 | — | ||||
| — |  Traian Cihărean (ROM) |
58.95 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |