As the curtain was lowered for the seven-day powerlifting competitions at the Beijing Paralympic Games here on Tuesday, China became the biggest winner with nine gold, two silver and three bronze medals.

China and Iran shared the last two golds of powerlifting on Tuesday. In the men's 100kg category, Chinese Qi Dong, winner of the event in 2007 European Championships, won the gold with a new world record.

The 26-year-old lifted 243kg in his first attempt, snatching the gold medal and breaking the previous record of 242.5kg set by Rajabigolojeh Kazem of Iran at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. Qi made a second attempt at 245kg and set another world record. Qi lifted 247.5kg in his third attempt to further refresh the world record.

Qi returned for a fourth attempt, ordering the bar loaded to 248.5kg, but he failed.

Obioma Daleth Aligekwe of Nigeria took the silver in 245kg, while the bronze went to Ali Sadeghzadeh Salmani of Iran in 230kg.

"I'm very excited," Qi said. "At first I didn't want to lift 243kg in my first attempt but my warm-up was very good, so I said to myself that a man should play like a real man."

"If nothing unpredictable happens, I will compete in the London 2012 Paralympic Games and the 2016 Paralympic Games," he said.

Iran's Kazem Rajabi Golojeh claimed the last gold in powerlifting, as he dominated the men's over 100kg category.

The hercules lifted 245kg in his first attempt to top the competition, and hoisted 257.5kg to break the world record. He lifted 265kg in the fourth attempt to further improve the world record.

Darren Gardiner of Australia lifted 230kg to take the silver, while Chinese Li Bing won a bronze for the host in 225kg.

China claimed 15 medals in 2004 Athens Paralympics with five golds, four silvers and six bronzes, while Egypt claimed ten medals with five golds, six silvers and two bronzes at that time, two more silvers than China.

This time the host made an amazing performance as Chinese powerlifters took nine of the 20 gold medals on offer.

Egypt took the second place with four golds, three silvers and three bronzes, while Nigeria finished third with 2-3-1.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2008)