Nayo Katchenko, who once completed for Cameroon, had to lift 140kg to beat Ukraine's teenager Iryna Dekha in the women's 75kg category, but failed with both her lifts as she finished runner-up for the second year in succession.
Natalia Priscepa, of Moldova, was third.
Of the eight French lifters, male and female, who had competed before Nayo Katchenko, three had failed to register a total, one finished 16th, and none had posted a total good enough for a place on the podium.
With Olympic qualifying points at stake for the women, it will all go down to the final event of the week on Saturday, the +75kg. France's men have already qualified but their women must finish in the top six of the non-qualified nations to secure a team place and they currently seventh.
In the men's 94kg event Poland won their first gold medal of the week when Tomasz Zielinski, elder brother of Adrian who won the 85kg Olympic title in 2012, made his first five lifts for a winning total of 387kg.
(Editing by Martyn Herman)
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