China remain strong but feel heat in weightlifting worlds

Chinese weightlifters stamped their strength in the power sport by dominating seven of 15 categories at the world weightlifting championship, but have been feeling pressure piled on by their opponents.

Though competing twice in major events in a month, Chinese weightlifters reaped harvest by collecting 12 golds of the total results in seven women's classes with men claiming 10 golds in five categories from a total of 15 divisions to lead the medal standings.

"I am proud of all the Chinese lifters because they overcame the tiredness to compete here," Ma Wenguang, president of the Chinese Weightlifting Association told Xinhua.

Most Chinese top athletes, including the lifters who were here for the worlds, competed in the Chinese National Games held in October in Jiangsu Province, East China.

"The number of medals indicated that we are a strong team now, but we still have to be cautious because our rivals are making very fast progress. If we get complacent, China will lose their advantage in the worlds next year, even in the Olympic Games in Beijing,"said Chinese coach Chen Winbin.

"Lifters of Thailand and Russia are becoming stronger, they may be the biggest hurdles to China in the Beijing Games," he added.

Olympic champion Pawina Thongsuk of Thailand declined from women's 75kg category to 63kg but still amazingly won the gold medal in the worlds with a winning total of 256kg, beating Chinese Liu Xia.

In the women's 69kg class, European champion Zarema Kasaeva beat Liu Haixia of China by just 1kg to win the first gold medal for Russia at a total of while upsetting world record of the jerk.

The 17-year-old Kasaeva, who lifted 265kg at European Championships, did not took the lead in the snatch as she hoisted 118kg, 2kg less than the 25-year-old lifter Liu Haixia.

Kasaeva pulled herself under her 157kg world record clean and jerk, for a junior and a senior world record in the last attempt, 3kg more than Liu Haixia's final lift, thus claimed the first gold medal for Russia at the worlds.

Since women's weightlifting has become a competitive event at the Olympic Games in 2000, the sport is witnessing a rapid growth in other countries, particularly in traditional powers like Russia.

"Countries like Russia, Romania and Poland have been known as men's lifting powerhouses and they have collected rich expertise in training strongmen," Ma said. "It is not difficult for them to transfer those expertise to women's weightlifting."

"We dare not let up since the Athens Games, because we knew that they are chasing us," another Chinese coach Ma Wenhui said.

What delighted China most was that more young talent made successful debuts in Doha.

Four young lifters in the Chinese team, including Hi Ping of women's 53kg, Gu Wei of women's 58kg, Qiu Le of men's 62kg and Lu Yong of men's 85kg, made impact in their first international appearance by clinching golds and silvers.

"Young lifters has passed their first international test with remarkable results, and they are the medal hopefuls for Chinese team in Beijing Olympics," Ma said.

"Though we lost some advantage in some categories, Chinese team will never give up any categories. We will keep observing and learning from the rivals before 2008 and then decide which categories we will choose to compete in the Beijing Games," Ma added.

Source: Xinhua