Sturdy Li wins double gold medal to dominate
CHIANG MAI, Thailand: Li Ping clinched a gold medal double and came close to two world records yesterday to further sound China's dominance of the world weightlifting championships.
With the women's clean and jerk gold medal already in the bag after a seemingly effortless first lift, Li boldly piled more kilos onto the bar in a bid to break her own world record and set a new mark for the 53kg total.
She went from a starting lift of 120kg to 134kg at her final attempt - five kilograms higher than her own world record - but the added weight proved too much and caused her to tumble backwards onto the platform with an expectant Thai crowd poised for celebration.
"When I was warming up, I felt like I was in the right shape to have a go at the overall world record," Li told reporters. "I knew I had to push it to the limit.
"There have been no world records so far at these championships. I wanted to change that.
She added: "I felt very sorry about my failure. I wanted both world records, but I panicked too much."
The nineteen-year-old lifted 93kg to take the bronze medal in the snatch and easily cleared 126kg in her second attempt at the clean and jerk to finish on 219kg.
Her two golds took China's impressive gold medal tally to 12 from the 15 on offer in the first four days of the championships, which is the main qualifying event for the Beijing Olympics.
South Korea's Yoon Jin-hee lifted 94kg in the snatch to win the other gold medal in the 53kg division.
She also took bronzes for the clean and jerk and the overall total.
Nastassia Novikava of Belarus recorded 94kg in the snatch, 119kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 213kg to take the three silver medals.
Agencies
(China Daily 09/21/2007 page22)
