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Two teenagers caused media hype in the women’s weightlifting competition as they both overcame veterans to win gold medals at the 11th Chinese National Games on Sunday.

Guan Xinlei of Jiangsu, 19, hoisted a winning lift 147kg in her final attempt, seven kilos more than her fifth lift, to knock down defending champion Ouyang Xiaofang to win the 63kg division gold medal with a world-record breaking total result of 265kg.

In an earlier match, Li Xueying, at the same age with Guan, beat two world champions Qiu Hongmei and Sun Caiyan to win the women’s 58kg division, regarded as one of the young hopefuls for the LondonOlympics.

“Guan seldom lifted 147kg in the training, so she is really amazing today. It is very rare that a lifter can produce her best result in an fierce competition,” said Cao Xinmin, Guan’s coach.

Ouyang of Liaoning, world champion in 2006, produced the same result as Guan but had to settle with the silver medal due to the bodyweight disadvantage.

The 19-year-old Guan’s jerk and total results were five kilos and eight kilos more than the world records of jerk and total respectively.

“Finally I became the focus and the most important lifter of theteam after Chen Yanqing retired. That’s why I won today,” Guan joked.

Li Liying, winner in the 69kg division in the last Chinese National Games, pocketed bronze at 257kg.

In the 63kg division competition, three lifters, including Ouyang, Guan and Li Liying of Hunan, cracked three world records in stunning 12 times.

In women’s 58kg, Li survived a tough fight and finished her debut with a total of 251kg, as same as the total world record made by Beijing Olympic champion Chen Yanqing. “I did not have stage fright at all when contesting with two veterans,” said Li.

Jerk world record holder Qiu Hongmei of Jiangxi, tipped as a favorite to win before the Games, failed the last two attempts and injured her left elbow ligament and had to bring home a silver medal at 246kg.

The 35-year-old veteran Sun Caiyan of Liaoning, world champion in 2003, came back with a strong performance to take the bronze at 245kg, before she announced retirement at the press conference.

“Today is my last competition. I still love weightlifting, but my physical condition did not allow me to continue,” she said.

Up till now, 13 of all the 21 women’s weightlifting national records are higher than the world records of the same kind.

Though bettering the women’s weightlifting world records frequently happens in the National Games, the new results will not be counted as the world records because they are not accepted by the International Weightlifting Federation.

Source: Xinhua