Tang Gonghong's last-ditch heave of 182.5kg on Saturday won China's 18th gold medal in Athens and its 100th gold in summer and winter Olympic Games.
Pushed to the edge by South Korean Jang Mi-ran, who totaled 7.5 kilos over the Chinese, Tang lifted a clean-and-jerk world record of 182.5kg in her third attempt for the winning weight of 305kg, also a new world record.
As China is becoming a world power in summer sports since it ended a gold drought in the 1984 Games, the world's most populous country remains a lightweight in winter sports, having won only two golds in the 2002 Winter Olympics.
In order to avoid complacency among the team, Chinese officials decided to put off the celebration until after the Athens Olympics.
"We note that's the 100th gold medal in the Chinese Olympic history," said Xiao Tian, Chinese delegation chef-de-mission. "But we won't celebrate until this Games is over."
China is expected to win its 100th summer Olympic gold or more on Sunday when table tennis, gymnastics, diving and tennis finals take place.
Earlier, Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen triumphed in an all-Chinese women's doubles final in badminton, and Ma Lin and Chen Qi downed Chinese Hong Kong pair Li Ching and Ko Lai Chak to win the men's table tennis doubles gold, China's fifth in the discipline since ping-pong's debut in the 1988 Olympics.
The gold Chinese wanted most slipped away again as the Chinese foil fencers, who missed the championship by one hit four years ago, lost to the Italians 42-45 in the final.
In a deciding race on who was the fastest woman on the globe, Belarus' Yuliaya Nesterneko surged ahead in the last meters to win the 100m dash in 10.93 seconds, three hundreds of a second clear of American Lauryn Williams, who picked the silver, a further 0.01 of bronze medalist Veronica Campbell of Jamaica.
She was the first non-American since the 1980 Olympics, which was boycotted by the United States, to win the women's 100m Olympic crown.
Sweden's world champion Carolina Kluft garnered 6,952 points to claim the heptathlon gold while Russia's Natalya Sadova clinched the women's discus title on a throw of 67.02m.
In the swimming pool, Australians beat their American rivals 2-1 for the day but didn't shake the US position as the world swimming Titan, which produced a six-gold medalist in the form of Michael Phelps and finished the swimming competition with 12 golds against Australia's seven.
Grant Hackett successfully defended his Olympic 1,500m freestyle title in an Olympic record of 14:43.30, continuing Australia's grip of the grueling race.
The Australians won the women's 4x100m individual relay in a world record of 3:57.32, beating the previous mark of 3:58.30 set by the United States in the 2000 Olympics.
Yet the American quartet gave the Olympic swimming competition a perfect ending when they broke their own world record to seize the men's 4x100m medley relay title in 3:30.68.
Earlier "Flying Dutchwoman" Inge de Bruijn, three days shy of her 31st birthday, won the 50m freestyle in 24.58 seconds, retaining the title she won as part of a golden hat-trick four years ago.
Two more Olympic veterans made their names into history books on Saturday.
"Shooting Machine" Ralf Schumann claimed his third Olympic gold when the German won the men's 25m rapid pistol with a score of 694.7 points.
Matthew Pinsent, a British man of steel, was overwhelmed with emotion after winning his fourth Olympic rowing gold in successive Games.
After leading James Cracknell, Ed Coode and Steve Williams eight hundredths of a second ahead of world champion Canada in the men's four coxless final, the 34-year-old British man broke down and sobbed uncontrollably.
The seven rowing golds at stake Saturday went to as many countries, as Germany, Norway, Romania, Australia, New Zealand and France split the other six events.
Britain added two more golds in sailing, winning the Finn and Yngling titles, while the United States and Greece took the men's 470 and women's 470 sailing respectively.
Usually quiet equestrian stirred up more controversy than any other sport as Germany won a gold and lost two.
The bad news came after Germany claimed the team dressage gold, beating Spain and the United States.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) stripped Germany of two golds when France, Britain and the United States won their appeal on Saturday.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that Bettina Hoy should have suffered time penalties in Wednesday's show jumping final, costing her the individual gold and Germany the team title.
France, which had finished second in the team competition, will now receive the team gold, while Britain's Leslie Law moves up to gold in the three-day individual competition.
South Korea took their third archery crown after its men beat Chinese Taipei 251-244 in the team final.
Shon Seung-mo failed to add one more to South Korea as he lost to Taufik Hidayat in the men's singles badminton final.
Hidayat's 15-8, 15-7 win gave Indonesia the first gold in Athens.
Yuri Nikitin grabbed Ukraine's sixth title as he scored 41.50 points in the men's trampoline final.
Watched by compatriot and International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, world top-ranked Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne subdued hard-hitting Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-3, 6-3, adding an Olympic gold to her bulging collection of professional crowns.
In the Olympic velodrome, Briton Bradley Wiggins triumphed in the men's individual pursuit final and Germany walked away with the men's sprint team gold.
Weightlifter George Asanidze claimed Georgia's second gold, winning the 85kg category. Andrei Rybakou of Belarus got the silver while Greece's triple Olympic champion Pyrros Dimas had to settle for a bronze.
The US basketballers' nightmare continued in Athens as a bunch of NBA players called "Dream Team" suffered a 94-90 beating by Lithuania, their second loss after a 92-73 thrashing by Puerto Rico last Sunday.
On the medal standings, the United States tops with 19 gold medals, chased by China with 18. Japan remains third with 12, followed by Australia on 11.
(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2004)
