| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 16, 2001 |
Day-4 Round-up: Women Lifters Close Contest, Sharpshooters Keep Falling |
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Day four of China's National Games here saw women's weightlifting contests close with three more world records cracked, while star shooters continued their downbeat slide.
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Day four of China's National Games here saw women's weightlifting contests close with three more world records cracked, while star shooters continued their downbeat slide.
On the power-displaying arena in Jiangmen, strongwoman Tang Gonghong from East China's Shandong Province upset all the three world records of the over 75kg category of women's weightlifting by raising a total weight of 312.5kg with 137.5kg in snatch and 175kg in jerk.
The world marks of the heaviest category of the weaker sex, which were made by China's Ding Meiyuan last year at the Sydney Olympic Games, stand respectively at 300.0kg, 135.0kg and 165.0kg.
Ding came second in Thurday's bout by hefting a total of 300.0kg, leveling her world record.
Though the record-crack waves of the women's weightlifting ran through the four-day competition, national coach Yang Hanxiong and senior official in charge of the sport Ma Wenguang remained in low key, warning that China is facing formidable challenges in the strongwomen's game from some upstart countries in Europe and Asia.
In the shooting range, some world-class star shooters like Shan Hong from the People's Liberation Army and world record holder Wang Xian of Zhejiang were all beaten by novices.
Shi Jia of Shanghai and Zhang Weijian from host Guangdong, both 20, respectively won the golds of women's 50-meter small-bore sports rifle and men's 10-meter moving target.
Commenting on the rise of the greenhands and fall of stars, leader of the national team Sun Shengwei said, "there are no ever-won generals in the shooting range and it is always good to see younger marksmen and women come to the fore."
However, new blood is missing in the Graco-Roman style wrestling competitions held in Zhaoqing, where most of the first eight standings on Thursday, the last day of the four-day contest, were above 30. Three-time Olympic wrestler Sheng Zetian of Anhui overwhelmingly beat Beijing's Zhang Yang, winning the gold at eight to zero.
World Cup champion and Sydney Olympic gold medalist in women's synchronized 10-m platform Li Na representing Beijing convinced both the judges and audience to pocket the gold medal in women's 10m platform diving. She scored a total of 588.33 points, leading the runner-up and defending champion Wang Rui by over 22 points.
Teenagers continued their stunning performances in the swimming pool, as 15-year-old Zhang Liang of the People's Liberation Army and 14-year-old Wu Peng from Zhejiang respectively won the titles of women's 200m freestyle and men's 200m butterfly.
Zhang, surprise winner in 400m freestyle two days ago, overpowered her rivals throughout the race and clocked in one minute 58.11, top-ranked so far this year.
Rookie Wu Peng took the limelight in a national record time 1:58.89.
Guangdong and Shanghai renewed the national record in men's 4x200m freestyle relay in 7:28.94 and 7:29.25.
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