China and Russia share golds in weightlifting worlds

Two weightlifting powerhouses China and Russia split the gold medals in the world weightlifting championships as each of them dominated one women's class on Wednesday.

In the women's 63kg, Quyang Xiaofang, the champion in the National Games in 2005, continued the streak of Chinese victories as she beat the gold-medal favorite Svetlana Shimkova of Russia by 5kg at a total of 246kg to win all three gold medals, in snatch, clean and jerk and total.

In the snatch, the 23-year-old Ouyang was at the verge of dropping out when she managed to complete her third lift at 110kg.

However, the current owner of the world record at 141kg, Shimkova took two attempts at the winning 139kg, but she failed both times.

The bronzes were collected by the junior European champion Meline Daluzyan of Armenia at 232kg.

"I was too nervous in the competition. You know, it was my first time to be in the worlds, and it was so different from the domestic competitions," Ouyang told the press conference.

"I had a knee injury so it made me feel difficult to lift 139kg in the jerk. Further more, it is too hot here, but in Russia, it is quite cold now," said Svetlana Shimkova.

In women's 69kg, the Olympic champion Liu Chunhong of China quit the competition after she had an elbow injury in the snatch. Oxana Slivenko of Russia, who won the silver medal in the junior worlds in May, won the gold medal at a total of 263kg.

The 20-year-old Slivenko was at her prime and snatched a new world record, improving Liu Chunhong's previous mark to 123kg.

Her compatriot Tatiana Matveeva took the silver at a total of 245kg and Jeane Elizabeth Lassen of Canada won the bronze at 238kg.

"I had the elbow injury in Beijing, and it worsened when I snatched today. I decided to give up because I want to get well-prepared for the Asian Games," Liu said.

"I made some mistakes in the jerk. If Liu was in the jerk competition, it would be hard to win her," Slivenko said.

Source: Xinhua