Batches of rising young weightlifters will compete on Sunday in the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) gym for the dominator's seat of the men's 56kg category weightlifting, which has been vacant for a long time since the era of talented Turk Halil Mutlu has ended.
It's Chinese rookie Long Qingquan's debut in big international events. It seemed the 18-year-old's chance of claming gold is not such promising as he was ranked fourth by entry total, following Indonesian teen prodigy Eko Yuli Irawan, 19, Vietnamese Hoang Anh Tuan, 23, and 21-year-old world champion Cha Kum Chol of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
However, Long stunned his teammate, world champion Li Zheng, in the national championships, lifting 292kg, which was five kilograms more than the best international competition result since 2006.
However, as the Indonesian lifter's entry total is 295kg, Long, who has been believed as another talented player in the men's flyweight category, will step into keen competition. Whoever wins the game may start his own era of ruling this category.
The women's 53kg class competition will also be held on Sunday, in which Thai strongwoman Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakoon is a hot favorite to claim the title after her two compatriots failed to gain a medal on Saturday's event of women's 48kg category.
China didn't send lifters to compete in this class. Belarussian lifter Nastassia Novikava, silver medalist of 2007 world championships and bronze medalist Yoon Jinhee of South Korea will compete with Prapawadee, who withdrew from the 2007 world championships due to injury.
She has been well recovered and will defend the honor of Thailand in this category as the division's gold at the Athens Games was won by Thai lifter Udomporn Polsak.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2008)