Liu Chunhong smashed several world records yesterday to defend China’s supremacy in a spectacular showdown with Russia’s Oxana Slivenko for the Olympic women’s 69kg class weightlifting title.
Liu set a world record in the snatch with 125kg, then broke that record with her next lift, snatching 128kg.
Her 158kg lift in the clean and jerk and her combined total of 286kg were also world records.
Slivenko, a former karate fighter, and Liu, a former judo hopeful, know that strength is worth nothing without a good strategy. But Slivenko, who held the snatch and total world records until Liu shattered both of them, misjudged her second lift and achieved only 115kg in the snatch. She won the silver.
“I think it’s really exciting to compete here at home,” Liu said.
Asked about her plans, the 23-year-old added: “What I want to do most is spend time with my parents, because since the last Olympics until now I’ve only spent six days with them.”
Natalya Davydova from Ukraine won the bronze.
China has pulled out all the stops to ensure its athletes bring home many of the 15 weightlifting gold medals up for grabs, dragging one top lifter out of retirement and putting up two others in the same weight class as a form of “double insurance.”
Defending champion Taner Sagir of Turkey was eliminated from the Beijing Olympics weightlifting competition yesterday after failing all three snatch attempts.
The Turk, who also crashed out at this year’s European championships with the same problem, failed to convert three tries at 165kg.
Sagir, the 77kg champion at the Athens Games and world champion in 2006, appeared to sprain his right shoulder at the first attempt and failed to achieve liftoff in subsequent tries.
His exit left the field clear for Li Hongli to win China’s seventh gold medal at the weightlifting competition, after Liu’s world record-breaking effort earlier in the day. Li leads the field as he converted his initial snatch effort of 163kg as well as his second lift of 168kg. However, he failed in his final hoist of 170kg.
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