Pawina was among the 139 athletes, including shooters, sepaktakraw players and weightlifters, travelling to Doha, Qatar for the 15th Asian Games Wednesday.

The 27-year-old Thai is a gold-medal hopeful in Doha. Chaiya Sukjinda was the last Thai weightlifter to win an Asiad gold in the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok. Since then, no Thai lifter has made it that far, according to Thursday's Bangkok-based English daily The Nation.

Four years ago in Busan, South Korea, Thai weightlifters returned with three silver medals, including one from Pawina in the women's 69kg category.

"It's hard to say that the gold medal is a lock. I have picked up this knee injury during training and it has hampered my preparations," Pawina was quoted by The Nation as saying on Wednesday.

"The team doctor says I must spray the pain-killer on the competition day, on December 4," she said.

Pawina admitted that the Chinese team would be hard to beat. She cited Ouyang Xiaofang, who captured three gold medals for the 63kg category at the recent World Championships in the Dominican Republic and is expected to contest the 63kg category at the Doha Asiad, will come out as a strong competitor.

"I have to be judicious in calling the weights and put pressure on the Chinese team. I must say that it will be very difficult to break my world records in snatch and Olympic total events."

Pawina, who landed the Best Female Athlete of the Year 2005 honour from the International Weightlifting Federation, has won in all the major competitions. Only the Asian Games gold is missing from her cupboard.

It was still a mystery as regards which category the Thai top female weighlifter, the first woman in a century to break world records in three different categories -- 63kg, 69kg and 75kg, would choose to contest in Doha.

The news of Pawina suffering an injury during training early this week was a big blow to her domestic fans, who have held high expectation for her winning a gold in Doha.