QUZHOU, China, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Teenager He Yueji broke the national record in the 61kg category at the four-day men's weightlifting national championships here on Thursday.

Facing world record holder Li Fabin, He Yueji surprised the audience with a successful 146kg lift in his third snatch attempt, which broke the 145kg national record held by Li.

Li, stepping on the stage later hoping to take back his record, failed his 147kg try and settled for a 143kg result in snatch. But the reigning world champion lifted 175kg after a failed second attempt, and secured both clean and jerk and overall golds.

"I could only give myself a six," said the 27-year-old Li, who surprisingly labelled his performance "awful."

"I totally failed my expectations. I will learn from his experience and work on the details in future trainings. Next time I will definitely have better results," Li vowed, and revealed he could lift 180kg in clean and jerk in training.

In the 67kg category, four-time world champion Chen Lijun was edged by his national teammate Huang Minhao by only 1kg as Huang lifted 154kg for the snatch gold.

Both finished the clean and jerk with a 176kg result, and Li failed twice on 181kg, which demolishing his hope to stand on top of the final podium.

"This is the first time I beat Chen in high-level competitions and I am very happy," said Huang, who changed his clean and jerk method this year.

"In the first one or two months everything was fine, then I struggled for about three months before getting accustomed to the new method," Huang recalled.

"The key is to stick to your plan and have confidence in yourself. I believe new method will help me improve my clean and jerk performance, which is my weakness, and hopefully I can lift 180kg in the future," he added.

The national championships also serve as a simulation event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, with nearly 300 athletes from 33 teams competing in 10 categories. Enditem

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