 Off Track ..... When friends become foes ...
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-12 08:08
Vietnamese Hoang Anh Tuan met Chinese weightlifter Long Qingquan in 2006 when he spent three months in Hunan province to train with the local team. At that time Long was just a 15-year-old boy, who soaked up computer games in his spare time. Hoang, in contrast, was already a well-established lifter, determined to win a medal at the Beijing Games to make up for his medal-less trip to Athens in 2004. They were close friends for those three months, but Hoang never expected to see Long again, as the two lifters went their separate ways to pursue their own medal dreams.
Needless to say, it was quite a surprise for Hoang when he looked across the floor on Sunday before his men's 56kg competition in Beijing and saw his old friend Long, who was preparing to compete for China. He had expected to see China's world champion Li Zheng, a lifter he had faced - and beaten - a couple of times before. He did not expect China to send Long, still young at 18 and someone who had never competed internationally before. "I only knew he was the 2007 Chinese national champion," Hoang said. "I did not expect to see him, my good friend Long, and compete with him again." Long was no longer the playful 15-year-old boy Hoang knew before. He has grown up to be a world-class weightlifter. It was indeed a bittersweet reunion for Hoang as Long beat him handily to take the gold. Hoang had to settle for second. China Daily (China Daily 08/12/2008 page8) |
