China and Egypt both increased their medal haul in Powerlifting to ten on September 14, while Chinese Taipei won its first medal of the Games with Lin Tzu-hui winning gold in the Women's 75 kilogram category.

New records were also set in two Women's weight categories.

Mexico made it a hat-trick of medals, Jordan chalked up its second medal in Powerlifting and Iran increased its medal tally to three in the sport.

Women's 75kg

Lin went out on her own from the beginning with a good lift of 137.5kg in her first attempt, taking the gold medal out of everybody's reach despite her no-lifts of 142.5kg in her second and third attempts. But she had already firmly grasped the gold medal.

The silver medal in the category went to Egyptian Randa Tageldin Mohamed, with good lifts of 125, 130 and 135kg. The bronze went to Lin's teammate Zhang Liping who made a very good lift of 130kg in her first attempt, a no-lift at 132.5kg in her second but a successful lift of the same weight in her third.

Women's 82.5kg

Egypt's Heba Said Ahmed set a new world and Paralympic record of a massive 155kg in this category. She broke the previous record of 143.5kg set by China's Zhang Liping at the 2007 IPC Powerlifting Open European Championships in Kavala, Greece. Zhang now competes in the 75kg category.

As an indicator to the dramatic way the record has increased, the previous Paralympic record of 135kg had been set by Emma Brown of Great Britain at the Sydney Paralympic Games.

The Egyptian lifter smashed both records in her first attempt with a good lift of 145kg, pushing the record up another 5kg in her second and, in her third attempt, lifting 152kg.

In a fourth attempt, Ahmed made a good lift of 155kg to set yet another world record.

China's Zuo Jue won the silver medal with a very strong lift of 137.5kg in her third attempt. Zuo also won silver in the 60kg category at the Sydney Paralympic Games.

Mexico's Perla Patricia Barcenas muscled in to win the bronze medal, making it a Powerlifting medal hat-trick for Mexico at the Beijing 2008 Games.

Women's over 82.5kg

In the Women's over 82.5kg event, China's Li Ruifang and Nigeria's Grace Ebere Anozie battled it out to the end for the gold and silver medals.

Anozie set the new Paralympic record of 165kg in her second attempt, breaking Li Ruifeng's previous record of 160kg set at the Athens Paralympic Games. In her second attempt, Li equaled Anozie's new record, resulting in a nail-biting competition for the gold and silver medals.

Li lifted 160kg and 165kg in her first and second attempts, putting her out in front for the gold medal, but the 167.5kg proved a weight too heavy for both lifters.

Anozie and Li both faltered in their third attempts, leaving Anozie's world record at that weight intact and securing her the silver medal, Nigeria's fifth medal in Powerlifting at the Beijing Games.

Egypt's Nadia Mohamed Ali won the bronze medal, giving Egypt its 10th medal in Powerlifting at the Games.

Men's 75kg

In the Men's 75kg category, the battle for medals was fought to the very end.

After good lifts of 222kg and 222.5kg, China's Liu Lei looked set to take the gold but faced a late challenge by Iran's Majid Farzin, who delayed his third attempt until after Liu's and had the bar loaded to 227.5kg in a bid to steam past the local favorite.

Farzin was unsuccessful, however, registering a no-lift, but took the silver medal for his first and second attempt lifts of 207.5kg and 212.5kg.

The bronze medal went to Jordan's Mu'taz Aljuneidi who lifted 205kg and 210kg.

The Powerlifting competition continues on Monday at the BUAA Gymnasium with the Men's 82.5 and 90kg categories.

(BOCOG September 14, 2008)