BEIJING, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese star weightlifters have set a goal of breaking the world records at the Asian Championships to be held next month in Ningbo, Zhejiang province.
Olympic champion Deng Wei, in women's 64kg class, would try to beat her own marks following her record breaking performances at the World Cup and World Championships.
"I felt tired after the World Cup and the World Championships. I may not strain myself to break all three records in my category but I will try to break one or two," said Deng.
Men's 73kg Olympic champion Shi Zhiyong said he also is preparing for breaking records.
Since the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) introduced the newly designed Tokyo 2020 Qualification System, the busy schedule is a challenging test for athletes both mentally and physically.
The men's team and the women's team are training together for an "encouraging training atmosphere", according to Yu Jie, the coach of men's team. Zhang Guozheng, the coach of women's team said, "We changed the training plan in responding to the shorter preparation period. Athletes are adapting to the new training and we are extremely careful to prevent injury."
Ningbo Asian championships is one of the series which offer valuable qualification points for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The new qualification system for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics requires weightlifters to compete at least six ranking events. At the end of the qualification period, the IWF will issue a list of qualifiers on the basis of Absolute Ranking Points calculated from four best results.
