You are here: Home

Champ Liu leads China bandwagon to two more golds

: 0 Comments Print E-mail China Daily, November 18, 2010

Adjust font size:

Weightlifting legend Liu Chunhong led China to double gold on the fifth day of Asian Games action on Wednesday, taking the host nation's gold medal haul to seven from a possible 10.

Reigning double Olympic champion Liu and compatriot Lu Yong, also a gold medalist at the 2008 Beijing Games, won the women's -69kg and men's -85kg classes at the Dongguan Gymnasium.

The packed venue was treated to high drama by Lu but a no-nonsense display by Liu, who soon scuppered talk that she was gunning for her own world record by playing well within her limits for a second Asiad gold.

Lu, however, survived a last-lift threat from Republic of Korea raider Kim Kwang-hoon, who scraped back a 13kg deficit in the snatch to have a 216kg clean and jerk chance for gold with the last hoist of the event.

It was a close-run thing as Kim just failed, his arms buckling as the bar was being raised above his head to gasps from the crowd.

Lu, world champion in 2009 and silver medalist at the 2006 Asiad in Doha, was unfazed.

"Sure I was nervous," acknowledged Lu, who just seconds before Kim's effort had spurned his final lift because his knees were hurting.

"But I've rarely seen lifters doing 216kg on their third attempt. I have injuries to my knees and I didn't want to make them worse ahead of winter training."

The second event of the day saw Liu in full control of the women's -69kg, and she hinted afterwards she had bigger fish to fry.

"Over the next two years, I'll train and improve in a bid to get the gold medal at 2012 London Olympics," she said.

"I started lifting young and still have age on my side. I'm not old and I'd like to challenge myself at the 2012 Games. I'm confident.

"I hope to do better there than in Beijing," where she set world records in the snatch, clean and jerk and aggregate, said the 25-year-old.