The Chinese squad finished the second day of the third East Asian Games (EAG) Sunday top of the medallist with three gold, one silver and three bronze medals.

The Chinese men's gymnastic team took China's first gold in the Games. The other two golds went to weightlifting.

The Chinese team, boasting Sydney Olympic gold winners Zheng Lihui, Li Xiaopeng, Yang Wei, Xing Aowei and Huang Xu, scored 188.1 points in the team final, 4.35 points ahead of second-placed Japan.

Gymnasts and coaches agreed new rules, adopted into the EAG for the first time, have meant a lot of changes in the competition.

"We've been practicing under new rules for just two months, we need time to be acquainted with the changes," Huang Xu said.

"The competitions have become more demanding on the gymnasts after those changes. But I have no reason not to be satisfied with the results as long as we win some golds," coach Huang said.

China also swept the first two gold medals in the weightlifting tournament.
Wu Wenxiong overcame a deficit of 2.5 kilograms in the snatch category and won over Wang Shin-yuan of Chinese Taipei in the men's 56kg class.

Wu's total of 287.5kg earned him a gold medal. Wang Shin-yuan finished second at 285kg, followed by Kim Sea-hyun of South Korea at 267.5.

Wu Wenxiong becomes the first athlete to break a record at the EAG. He beat the junior world record of clean and jerk. The previous such world record is 162.5kg set by Zhang Xiangxiang of China.

"I did quite well in clean and jerk today, but it was terrible in snatch," said Wu, who took part in the Sydney Olympic Games.

"Snatch is my weak point and stability is also a problem for me," said Wu. "I should make more efforts to solve the problem."

Wu's teammate Wu Jian took the gold medal in the men's 62kg class. He collected a total of 300kg, beating Kim Young-tae of South Korea to second place at 275kg.

(Xinhua 05/21/2001)