Chinese Lifter Sets Three Records

China may be having difficulty in some sports, but not in weightlifting.

Zhan Xugang, the 1995 world champion, gave China its second weightlifting gold medal of the Games, prevailing at 154 1/2 pounds while setting three world records

Zhan, 22, lifted 358 pounds in the snatch and 429 3/4 pounds in the clean-and-jerk for a total of 788 pounds.

North Korea’s Kim Myong-nam, who had set the previous records in April, won the silver and Hungary’s Attila Feri took bronze.

The result was further confirmation that China is now a force in the lighter weights.

Meanwhile, with 23 family members watching him lift for the first time, Tim McRae of Daytona Beach, Fla., set three American records, but finished 14th out of the 28 competitors.

McRae lifted 319 1/2 pounds in the snatch; 391 1/4 pounds in the clean-and-jerk, and a total of 710 3/4 pounds, bettering the standards he set three months ago at the U.S. Olympic trials.

Turkey’s world silver medalist and 1994 champion Fedail Guler pulled out without making a lift after injuring his elbow in the warm-up. Double world bronze medallist Ergun Batmaz, trailing badly after the snatch, declined a third clean-and-jerk attempt.

Medalists / Weightlifting

154 1/2 POUNDS

Gold: Zhan Xugang, China

Silver: Kim Myong-nam, North Korea

Bronze: Attila Feri, Hungary