Rookie Cao Lei of China made a quite dramatic debut in the world weightlifting championships as she beat two Russians after the final lift to win the gold medal at 268kg in the women's 75kg category in Santo Domingo on Thursday.

The 23-year-old Cao Lei, who placed fourth in the women's 69kg in the National Games in 2005, shifted to the 75kg class last December and won her first gold medal in the worlds.

Russian duo, four-times junior world champion Nadezhda Evstyukhina and Zarema Kasaeva teamed up to block the victory of the newcomer Cao and Evstyukhina won gold with a lead of 4kg on Cao in the snatch.

However, the jerk competition brought about a big turn. Evstyukhina forced Cao to try 150kg hoping that she would miss it. Cao, however, did jerk this weight, while the Russian could not.

Evstyukhina took the silver at 267kg while Kasaeva settled with bronze with a total of 246kg.

"It is quite interesting that the final lift decided the gold-medal-winner," Cao said.

"I did not expect I could win. A medal would be enough, but now, it is a gold medal," she added.

"I was disappointed with the result. I should have had a better result in the jerk. I trained so hard for the Beijing Olympics, and I will work harder," Evstyukhina said.

In the men's 85kg category, Andrei Rybakou of Belarus, the snatch world-record holder, won the gold medal with a total of 383kg, a comfortable 10kg lead to the silver medalist Roman Khamatchine of Russia.

Tigran V. Martirosyan of Armenia took the bronze at 370kg.

(Xinhua News Agency October 6, 2006)