China Perform Clean Sweep in Fourth Day of Powerlifting

Host nation China picked up all four gold medals available in Powerlifting on the fourth day of competition (16 December) at the Guangzhou 2010 Asian Para Games.

In the first event of the day – the Women’s 52kg – China’s Wang Hongchan took gold with a lift of 100.0kg. Syria’s Fatema Alhasan and Vietnam’s Dinh Thi Nga claimed silver and bronze respectively.

Yang Yan followed suit in the Women’s 56kg lifting 107.5kg to secure gold. Silver went to Thailand’s Somkhoun Anon and bronze Iraq’s Dhikra Saleem.

In the afternoon session Gu Xiaofei won the gold medal in the Men's 82.5kg making it a hat-trick of medals for host nation China. His lift of 215.0kg was enough to defeat Seyedhamed Solhipourounji of Iran and Thaer Al Ali of Iraq into silver and bronze.

Cui Jianjin made it a clean sweep for China powering her way to victory in the Women’s 60kg category. Her lift of 110.0kg secured gold and pushed Siow Lee Chan of Malaysia and Mayagozel Pekieva of Turkmenistan in silver and bronze.

With two days of Powerlifting still to go seven medals are still up for grabs – four will be awarded on Friday and three on Saturday.

The Guangzhou Asian Para Games will run until 19 December and involve around 2,500 athletes from 41 countries competing in 19 sports.