China set to raise Asiad weight lifting medals

Robert J. Saiget, Agence France-Presse, Beijing

China's powerful women weightlifters are expected to continue their dominance over continental counterparts at the upcoming Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, with all seven gold medals on offer targeted.

Li Shunzhu, head coach of the women's weightlifting team, said he expected his lifters to win every weight class despite relative inexperience and tough challenges in the lower divisions from several countries.

"We have dominated in women's weightlifting in the Asiad for about 10 years, but we still adopt a cautious attitude to do our best on preparing," Li said.

"In fact, we still have several strong rivals at the Asian Games, especially in some lesser weight divisions. We treat Myanmar as our biggest threat in the 48kg class, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) in the 53kg class and North Korea in the 58kg class."

Li said China was confident of winning the other four golds, in the 63kg, 69kg, 75kg and over-75kg classes, as long as no accidents or injuries occurred.

China's women lifters swept all seven titles in the last Asian Games in 1998 in Bangkok, with a total of 13 world records broken 17 different times.

China won four of the seven gold medals in women's weightlifting at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but of these winners, only Ding Meiyuan, gold medalist in the 75 kg category will be competing in Busan.

This means much of the woman's team, although strong and likely to sweep the competition, will be on unknown ground, Li said.

Last year at China's national games, talented young weightlifters were in abundance as several world records fell, including seven separate lifters breaking the existing world record in the 63kg division alone.

In the end, Yan Xiaoli took the 63kg title, hoisting 257.5kgs.

In the 58kg division, four lifters broke the old world best with Song Zhijuan coming out top with 250kg, and in the women's 48kg category Wang Mingjuan won gold by lifting a total of 210kg, smashing the existing world record of 197.5kg.

In the men's competition, coach Wu Shude said he expected his lifters to win at least four of the eight gold medals on offer, with this rising to six given a little luck.

"Our main rivals are from Chinese Taipei, Qatar and Iran, respectively in men's 56kg, 69kg and 85kg divisions. However, we still deem ourselves as the most competitive team in the upcoming Asiad." Wu added.

In the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games, China's men lifters took half of the eight golds at stake with two more silvers.