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Asian Games: Chinese raise their standards again: Display of power raises more suspicion over the secret of Peking's training methods

Tuesday 04 October 1994 23:02 BST
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(First Edition)

CHINA'S women weightlifters continued their onslaught on the record book at the Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan, yesterday, raising the standard in six more categories after setting eight world marks on Monday.

All the world record breakers so far are lifters under 20 years of age and some of them have been training since they were 12 years old.

The latest world records to fall came in the 59 kilogram and 70kg classes. Chen Xiaomin put the machine in motion with records in the 59kg category for the clean and jerk, and the combined, and equalled the world record for the snatch.

She had a combined total of 220kg, breaking the old mark of 217.5 set by her fellow Chinese, Sun Caiyan, at the World Championships in Melbourne last November. The 17-year- old Chen also set a world record of 122.5kg in the clean and jerk, breaking the 120.5kg record of another Chinese lifter, Zuo Feie, set at Shilong in China last December.

Tang Weifang set a world record for the snatch, clean and jerk and combined total in the under-70kg category. Tang had a combined total of 230 kg, breaking the old record of 220kg set by Milean Trendafilova, of Bulgaria, at the World Weightlifting Championships in Melbourne, Australia, last November. In the snatch, she also broke Trendafilova's 100kg set at the same meet and Tang's 128kg in the clean and jerk was better than the Bulgarian's 120kg.

At the end of the competition, China's lifters had only failed to improve on existing world marks in the 64kg category.

Other world records to fall yesterday were in the 46kg and 54kg categories.

The head of the International Weightlifting Federation gave China's world record women weightlifters a clean bill of health yesterday but said he was 'worried' about drugs in the sport.

Speaking at the Asian Games in Hiroshima, Gottfried Schodl revealed there was a surprise drug check on the new superwomen of China two months ago and they would be checked again at the end of October.

'We have checked them very carefully and made out- of-competition tests two months ago in an unannounced check in China. At the end of October we go again to China,' Schodl said.

None of the tests have proved positive for performance enhancing drugs, said the Austrian.

Asked if he was sure the Chinese women were not using drugs, Schodl replied: 'It is very difficult to say yes. I am really worried about drugs.'.

Schodl said much of the suspicion against China was due to envy and doubted if Peking could have developed anything which was not known to the rest of the world.

China continued to dominate the swimming, taking all five golds, two silvers and a bronze and breaking Asian Games records in every event.

Particularly heartening for the Chinese team managers is the spread of excellence to the men's team from the already overpowering women who rewrote the record books in August at the World Championships in Rome, winning 12 out of 16 medals.

The night belonged to 20- year-old Xiong Guoming, who helped China win the 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay and added the 400m individual medley title to the 200m freestyle gold he won on Monday.

China's divers took the honours in the diving, lifting gold and silver in the women's platform and the men's three-metre springboard.

In the women's event, Chi Bin was in the unusual position of being, at 15, the oldest of the medal contenders, her 13-year-old team-mate, Wang Rui, fighting her for supremacy. Wang led the competition in the earlier dives but as they stepped up the difficulty level, Chi edged ahead.

Her later dives drew gasps from the gallery, although most of the public sympathy was with the waif-like Wang, who captured the platform gold in the Chinese National Games last year.

Games results, Sporting Digest, page 31

(Photograph omitted)

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