Rivals keen to unlock China's weightlifting secrets

Beijing, Aug 16 (UNI) India with a population of over a billion has found it difficult to win medals at Olympics, while its neighbouring nation China has always started the global event as a leading contender, especially in Weightlifting, and experts from around the world are trying hard to discover the secret behind their success.

China was expected to win one-third of the 15 Olympic weightlifting gold medals this year which it has already crossed.

However, Chinese coaches and athletes claim there is no secret and it is just a tough training routine with a determination to win.

Cao Lei, who won the seventh weightlifting gold of the Games in the 75kg category for China yesterday, said, ''Weightlifting depends on strength and so our women weightlifters have fully understood the importance of strength and pick up gold medals.'' China's female lifters have been especially impressive, not only because they have won every competition they entered but also because of their style.

Cao and her compatriot Chen Xiexia appeared to lift the barbell with so much ease which could easily bring down the morale of any lifter as leave the other challengers gasping for breath.

But the experts around the globe are still pondering as to what could be the lesson that they can take and every time they take one China surpass their imagination.

At the Olympics, Chen lifted 13kg more, Cao 16kg more, and gold medalist Liu Chunhong, 31kg more than their closest rival in a sport where there is often just a single kilogram between gold and silver.

An international weightlifting federation official, Andrew Charniga, has been closely following the Chinese women's training and feels the secret could be in a long warm-up.

The reason to his belief, he says is, while a long warm-up can exhaust men, it possibly has the opposite effect on women, allowing them to take on higher and higher loads.

''It's a training method that is unique. They think women can do more loading than a man,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the Federation president Tamas Ajan gives the credit of their success to the country's sports schools who bring up such enthusiastic and great athletes.

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