Chinese strongmen may compete in five categories at Olympics

QUANZHOU, South China, April 23 (Xinhua) -- China's weightlifting team may compete in five men's categories in the Beijing Olympic Games as Chinese strongmen showed their world-class performance at the National Weightlifting Championships.

In the four-day competition, Chinese male lifters made impressive lifts as the winning results in the 56kg, 62kg, 69kg, 77kg and 85kg were near the best result in the past four years.

"We are considering in which categories we will compete in the Beijing Olympics. The good results in these five categories here lightened up our Olympic gold dreams," said Ma Wenguang, president of the Chinese Weightlifting Association (CWA).

"The Olympic squad will be announced before July, the CWA will choose the lifters according to their performance in this National Championships and the international competitions in last three years," he added.

The national team has established an evaluating team to mark all the key lifters' performances from 2005, as a preparation for the Beijing Olympics.

"Except results in competitions, their daily training and physical condition will also count during the evaluating process."

Chinese strongmen competed in above five categories in the Athens Olympics in 2004, winning two gold medals from the 62 kilograms and 69 kilograms classes.

"Heavy categories were considered as disadvantage for Chinese lifters, but Lu Yong drew our attention with his excellent lifts in the men's 85 kilograms division here," said Ma.

The 22-year-old Lu Yong made the spotlight as he snatched 180 kilograms and jerked 213 kilograms to lift a total of 393 kilograms on Tuesday, equaling the winning result made by Andrei Rybakou of Belarus in the worlds in 2007.

Lu's result was also the best in the international competitions of this power sport in last three years, only two kilograms less than the world record.

"I think Lu will make better performance in the Games, and he has the ability to do that," said Pang Gaoxing, the team leader of the Chinese men's team.

Lu clinched the silver in the worlds in 2005 but placed the seventh in the worlds in 2007 due to the sprain injury during the competition.

In the men's 56 kilogram category, world champion Li Zheng and rookie Long Qingquan both hoisted a total of 292 kilograms, which was nine kilograms more than the winning result in the worlds in 2007.

In the 62 kilograms class, Olympic bronze medallist Zhang Xiangxiang lifts 320kilograms in total and the 22-year-old Liao Hui overcame two Olympic champions Shi Zhiyong and Zhang Guozheng to hoist 355 kilograms in total.

A younger Chinese weightlifting squad may catch the limelight at the Olympic Games in Beijing as young buds showed their talents here.

"If young powermen continue their momentum in the next few months, some could even replace the veterans to compete at the Olympics," said Ma.