Sherif Othman Othman cries on the podium. [Xinhua]

Paralympic powerlifters continued to raise the bar on Thursday, with Egypt's Sherif Othman Othman breaking the world and Paralympic record three times in the Men's 56 kilogram category.

He set a new world and Paralympic record with a 195kg lift, only to set a new world record of 200kg in his second attempt and lift the gold medal out of everybody's reach.

Othman then set yet another record, lifting an incredible 202.5kg in his third attempt for the 56kg weight class title.

"I burst into tears after the competition because I have prepared for a long time and have put in a lot of hard work," said Othman. "I was very eager to win the gold medal and now everything has paid off."

"It is my first Paralympic Games and also my first gold medal. In the competition I have broken the world record three times in a row." Othman added, expressing satisfaction with his performance.

The previous Paralympic record of 193.5kg was set by Othman's compatriot Ahmed Goumaa Mohamed at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games, and the world record by China's Wang Jian at the 2007 National Games in Kunming, China.

The three other strongmen to emerge early in the competition were Rasool Mohsin of Iraq, China's Wang and Jung Keum-Jong of the Republic of Korea, who all made clean 180kg lifts in their first attempt.

Mohsin maintained his momentum with a clean 185kg lift in his second attempt to seize the silver medal, while Jung slipped behind with a no-lift at the same weight to take the bronze medal.

Earlier, despite a deafening chorus of encouragement from local fans, Wang registered a no-lift at 187.5kg to finish fifth.

(BOCOG September 11, 2008)