In defeating the Bulgarian Karlos Nasar, one of the sport’s best teenagers in decades, Pizzolato became only the second Italian weightlifter to set a world record - 100 years after the first.

In his first competition in the new Olympic weight of 89kg, Pizzolato started by missing his first snatch attempt at 170kg, but he never looked back after that.

Five good lifts followed, the last of which was a magnificent 217kg that gave him two world records, in clean and jerk and total.

No other Italian had set a world record before or since Filippo Bottino, the 1920 Olympic heavyweight champion who made 116kg in the now defunct press discipline in Genoa in 1922.

Pizzolato’s 175-217-392 left him 10kg clear of Nasar, who missed two snatch attempts and his final clean and jerk but still ended with three junior world records on 171-211-382.

Revaz Davitadze of Georgia was third on 171-198-369, ahead of the other Italian in the field, Cristiano Ficco, who made 160-206-366.

Apart from the seemingly unbeatable Georgian super-heavyweight Lasha Talakhadze, Pizzolato is the only European to hold a world record on total in men’s and women’s weightlifting.

Antonio Urso, who started a highly-successful development programme in his role as President of the Italian Weightlifting Federation, was full of praise for "amazing" Pizzolato.

"After 100 years, Italian weightlifting has returned overwhelmingly not only to win continental and world gold medals, but today we have been able to write a page of history for our nation and for the whole world of Olympic weightlifting," Urso told insidethegames.

Urso said the Italians had expected that Pizzolato would be able to express himself today at great levels, thanks to the meticulous work of all the technical and medical staff.

"I have to thank all my collaborators not only for what they do but for having believed in this project which started over 10 years ago.

"This sport deserves to remain in the Olympic programme because the value of these athletes cannot be denied by anyone."

His last comment was directed at the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF), from which he resigned as an Executive Board member in 2020 during a governance crisis.

He is running for election as President of the IWF next month, having been beaten into second place by Tamas Ajan in the past two elections.

Nasar, a youth, junior and senior world record holder at 81kg, was beaten by Pizzolato at last year’s European Championships too.

He showed his respect for his conqueror in an embrace after the competition, and whatever challenge the Asian and Pan American athletes put up, these two look set to dominate this weight category in qualifying for Paris 2024.

The silver for Nasar leaves Bulgaria in a strong position to finish top of the medals table in Tirana.

Bulgaria’s team of 13 athletes - 10 men and three women - have so far won three gold medals, one silver and two bronzes in total.

There could be more to come as Bulgaria has the favourite Hristo Hristov in the men’s 109kg category, plus two chances at 102kg via Vasil Marinov and David Fischerov.

After having two winners at the weekend, Bulgaria struck gold for a third time when Valentin Genchev won the 67kg category with 139-175-314, finishing 7kg clear of Shota Mishvelidze of Georgia, with the Spaniard Acoran Hernandez third on 299kg.

Muhammed Ozbek followed up his success at 67kg last year by winning the 73kg title, giving Turkey its second champion of the week.

Ozbek was a clear winner on 339kg, ahead of Kakhi Asanidze of Georgia on 326kg and Piotr Kudlaszyk of Poland on 324kg.

Erkand Qerimaj led after the snatch but, like his fellow Albanian Briken Calja, he failed to make a total.

At 81kg, Armenia’s Rafik Harutyunyan declined his final lift after pulling clear of his rivals on 160-194-354.

Spain’s Andres Mata was second on 160-186-346, missing his final two attempts in the clean and jerk, and the Bulgarian Bozhidar Andreev was third on 343kg.

France, Ukraine and Sweden had winners in the women’s events.

Dora Tchakounte of France won the 59kg with her final lift, edging out Lucrezia Magistris of Italy.

Tchakounte, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympic Games, claimed the biggest win of her career when she made 96-117-213 to win by 1kg.

The Norwegian Ine Andersson made the best clean and jerk of 118kg to finish third on total with 208kg.

Ukraine’s Mariia Hanhur took the 64kg title with 102-120-222, ahead of Nuray Gungor of Turkey and Vicky Graillot of France, who respectively totalled 219kg and 208kg.

Patricia Strenius of Sweden was a long way behind after the snatch session in the 71kg contest, but she was far too good for her rivals in the clean and jerk.

Strenius, 32, who was fourth at the Tokyo Olympic Games at 76kg and third at the IWF World Championships in December when she went back down to 71kg, made 94-130-224 to edge Lisa Marie Schweizer from Germany.

Monika Marach of Poland was third, a further 8kg back.