The country’s track record at the Games is impressive and was sealed on a global standing when it topped September’s world weightlifting championships in the Turkish city of Antalya.
An overall medal haul in Turkey of 11 (four gold, five silver, two bronze) saw China top the standings ahead of Russia and Kazakhstan, the latter also taking part here. That total goes up to 32 (14-12-6) when individual snatch and clean-and-jerk results are taken into consideration. Overall golds went to Wu Jingbiao (56kg) and Olympic and world double champion Liao Hui (69kg) in the men's draw, and Chen Xiaoting (53kg) and Deng Wei (58kg) in the women's.
China won 10 of the 15 gold medals on offer in Doha, and will target an even more successful haul this time even though Hui and Olympic gold medalist Long Qingquan have been omitted to give younger team-mates a chance to sample the international stage.
Modest hopes
The Indian weightlifting squad is going into the Asian Games competitions with very modest hopes of winning medals. The country has come here with a 13-member team comprising of eight men and five women lifters but is aiming to secure a medal each in only the men’s 69 and plus 105 kg categories through participants Ravi Kumar and Sarabjit Singh, according to team manager K Subramanyam. The competition starts here with women’s 48kg and men’s 56kg events and India have entries in both sections through Sandyarani Devi and Soniya Chanu (women) and B Srinivasa Rao and Sukhen Dey (men).
The team: Men: 56kg: Sukhen Dey and V S Rao; 62kg: Rustam Sarang and Omkar Otari, 69kg: K Ravi Kumar; 77kg: C P R Sudhir Kumar, 85kg: Chandrakant Mali; +105kg: Sarabjit Singh. Women: 48kg: N Soniya Chanu and A Sandyarani Devi; 58kg: Y Renubala Chanu; 75kg: L Monika Devi; +75kg: Geeta Rani.