World records broken
Taiwan’s Chen Wei-ling has broken two world records to capture the gold medal in the women’s powerlifting lightweight division at the World Games in Kaohsiung Saturday.
Chen set world records in the squat and deadlift to offset her fifth-place finish in her weakest powerlifting discipline, the bench press, to win the gold medal with a combined score of 668.27 points.
“I’m really happy to have won gold at a World Games being held in Taiwan and fulfill people’s expectations. I felt I had a good chance to win, so I didn’t feel that much pressure,” said a happy Chen.
“I’m very satisfied with the result. I accomplished 99.9 percent of what I wanted to achieve.”
A bronze medalist in the under 48kg class in the Olympic weightlifting competition in Beijing, Chen said powerlifting more closely suits her skills because its emphasizes strength rather than technique, which is an important part of weightlifting.
With the lightweight powerlifting division at the World Games open to all lifters under 52kg, the actual weights lifted are multiplied by “weight factors” to determine the point totals the competitors receive for each lift.
Lighter lifters had their lifts multiplied by bigger weight factors to even the playing field.
Thus the 46kg Chen, for example, still earned the most points in the deadlift despite lifting 7.5 kilos less than heavier compatriot Chou Yi ju.
The broader weight class also allowed two world records to be set in the same lift category. Chen’s deadlift of 195.0kgs set the world record for the under 48kg class and Chou’s deadlift of 202.5kgs. set the record for the under 52kg class.
The gold medalist also entered the record books with a squat of 207.5kgs, shattering the old record of 200.0kgs.