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Little Chance for Chinese Men's Lifters for Gold
Chinese men's weightlifters, who won two gold medals at the Atlanta Olympic four years ago, will be hard to take even single gold at the Sydney Olympics.
"We never guaranteed we could win a gold medal in Sydney even before Shi Zhiyong withdrew," said Yang Hanxiong, head coach of the Chinese men's team.
Shi, China's gold hopeful in the men's 62-kg category, decided to quit the Games days before the Chinese team left for Sydney due to his wrist injury, which he had suffered for nearly two months, leaving his teammate Le Maosheng the only Chinese lifter in the class.
The 20-year-old Shi snatched a world record of 152.5 kilograms at the Asian Weightlifting Championships in Japan in May to surpass his own world mark of 147.5-kg set last year in Greece.
"He is our number one in the 62-kg and his withdrawal is certainly an affection to our goal for the gold medal here," Yang said. "There is nobody who can take his place in our team."
Le, world champion in the 62-kg totaling at 320 kilograms after setting a world record of 180.5 kilograms in the clean and jerk lift last year in Greece, now will face challengers from Sevdalin Minchev of Bulgaria, who tops world rankings, and Leonidas Sabanis of Greece and Nikolai Peshalov of Croatia, as well as Turkey's "Pocket Hercules" Naim Suleymanoglu, who cameback from three years retirement for his consecutive fourth Olympic gold medal.
"It's difficult for Le to win the gold," Yang said. "Though Le's form is good but his opponents are much better than I had thought. However, as long as there is a hope, we will try our best.
The medal for the gold is better, the silver or bronze is also nice." Zhan Xuegang, gold medalist in the 70-kg class four year's ago in Atlanta, is another China's hopeful to take a gold. Zhan, however, will compete in the 77-kg class this time and it seems more hard to succeed.
"He had suffered a injury on his back and just recovered a few months, I am not sure of his victory," said Yang, who himself coached Zhan for the gold in Atlanta.
Last year, Zhan placed world fourth with a total of 365 kilograms in the 77-kg class. "His opponents became more stronger after last year's world championships. So Zhan will have a hard-fought competition next week," Yang added.
In the men's 77-kg category, Zlajan Vanev of Bulgaria is one of the favorites, followed by Badr Saelem of Qatar, Victor Mitrou of Greece and Khalatur Kyapanaktshyan of Armenia. China also sent four other men's lifters in Sydney, without any hope for the gold.
Zhang Xiangxiang and Wu Wenxiong will be in the 56-kg category while Zhang Guozheng and Wan Jianhui in 59-kg.
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