Records that will be maintained for a long time

Our reporter Li Shuo

The 2025 Asian Weightlifting Championships ended in Jiangshan, Zhejiang recently.

31 gold, 15 silver, 11 bronze, breaking the world's adult record 5 times, breaking the world's youth record 5 times, and breaking the Asian record 12 times. This is the report card handed over by the Chinese weightlifting team.

As the first adult group competition that officially formed a team during the Los Angeles Olympic cycle, the 20 members of the Chinese weightlifting team won medals in 17 levels, men and women, and won gold medals in total results in 10 levels. Among them, the women's 45, 55, 64, 76, 81, 87 kg and 87 kg and above respectively won the gold medals in the total score of the women's 45, 55, 64, 76, 81, 87 kg and above respectively, and these players won all three gold medals in the snatch, clean and twitch and total scores of their respective levels. In the men's 55, 81 and 102 kg, Wang Weidong, Luo Chongyang and Liu Huanhua won the gold medal in the total score respectively.

Using the competition to test the training effect, the whole team boosted confidence and prepared for the new challenges in the new cycle.

On June 1, 2025, the International Federation of Elevators will adopt a new competition level, with 8 levels for men and women, namely men's 60, 65, 71, 79, 88, 94, 110 kg and above for women, and women's 48, 53, 58, 63, 69, 77, 86 kg and above for 86 kg.

This Asian Championship is the last international competition before the implementation of the new level system, which gives the participating athletes more motivation to challenge the world record and thus become the long-term world record holder of the old level.

"The goal is to break the record!" This is the voice of many team members. Zhao Jinhong broke the world record for women's 45kg snatch with 90 kg, Yang Qiuxia broke the world record for women's 71kg snatch with 122 kg, and Liao Guifang broke the world record for women's 76kg snatch with 125 kg and 279 kg. Before the Asian Championships, the Chinese weightlifting team organized two training camps in Fujian and Beijing to select new forces for the national team. Fujian training camp selected 68 athletes, with an average age of 22.2 years old, of which 33.8% were athletes aged 20 and under.

The team test after the training in Fujian showed that 37 players reached or exceeded the best results in the game, and 16 players reached or exceeded the best results in the training. When we arrived in Beijing, the number of athletes in the new training phase was dynamically adjusted to 49. In the new cycle, the national team has also reformed the coaching team, and athletes are included in four training groups for men and women, with 8 coaches as group leaders. Each group is assigned to team members of each level, and through healthy competition, the team members' training enthusiasm is fully mobilized.

"As the National Games Year, the national team focuses on selecting and cultivating young players and young coaches with development potential, selecting materials and training scientifically, and gradually consolidating the foundation for preparations for the Los Angeles Olympics." said Liu Chengliang, director of the General Administration of Sports of China.

People's Daily (15th edition, May 20, 2025)