OLYMPICS
Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
August 15, 2016
August 15, 2016
Long Qingquan sets world record in
winning Olympic weightlifting gold
By Jenna Fryer
The Associated Press
IO DE JANEIRO — Long
Qingquan of China set a
world record in winning
Olympic gold in the men’s weight-
lifting 53-kilogram category at the
Rio de Janeiro Games.
Long’s total score of 307 kilograms
set the record and was aided by a
final 170-kilo lift in clean and jerk in
what turned out to be a battle
between former gold medallists.
Long, a gold medallist in 2008, was
leading the competition after the
snatch and all the way through
clean and jerk until Om Yun-Chol of
North Korea lifted 169 kilograms on
his final attempt to tie for the lead.
Om won gold in London four years
ago.
Long then came out for his final lift,
raised his bar and celebrated the gold
medal by pumping his fists in the air.
He won by just four kilograms over
Om, and the mark beat the record of
305 kilograms that Halil Mutlu set at
the 2000 Sydney Games.
“I am really happy. I am really
proud,” Long said. “I came to this
competition with two dreams — to
win the competition and break the
world record and I did (both).”
Long is the first weightlifter with
eight years between his first and
second gold medal, in any men’s or
women’s event.
“I have prepared for the competi-
tion for four years because I did not
get to compete in the 2012 Olympic
Games,” he said. “After four years, I
did it.”
Long’s best snatch lift of 137
kilograms was two kilograms off the
world record mark, set by fellow
Chinese weightlifter Wu Jingbiao
last year.
Om took silver with 303 kilograms
and was beaten for the first time in a
major competition since he won gold
in London.
Sinphet Kruaithong of Thailand
won bronze. He became the first Thai
R
SWEET SILVER. Gold medal winner Hsu Shu-Ching of Taiwan,
center, stands with silver medal winner Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines,
left, and bronze medal winner Yoon Jin-hee of South Korea, right, after
the women’s 53-kilogram weightlifting competition at the 2016 Summer
Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
Hidilyn Diaz’s weightlifting silver ends
Philippines’ Olympic medal drought
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Philippines is
celebrating the silver medal won by weightlifter Hidilyn
Diaz at the Rio Olympics — a happy break to the
Southeast Asian nation’s 20-year medal drought.
Diaz competed in the women’s 53-kilogram
weightlifting competition.
President Rodrigo Duterte sent his congratulations to
Diaz, an Air Force soldier, saying she brought honor to the
country. Vice president Leni Robredo said Diaz serves as
an inspiration to every Filipino and a reminder that no
challenge is too heavy for a Filipino woman to overcome.
The three-time Olympian’s medal is the Philippines’
first since boxer Mansueto “Onyok” Velasco won silver at
the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Cupping and coining:
I did it long before Phelps
Continued from page 4
charge a few hundred
dollars for the service. Here
we pay the equivalent of $3
for an hour-long session.
Even Prime Minister
Hun Sen has touted the
benefits of coining and
cupping. He has told
journalists that his wife
Bun Rany does it on him
when he is sick.
In ancient times, cup-
ping was used to get rid of
blood and pus when treat-
ing skin abscess, but it has
been expanded to treat
tuberculosis and rheuma-
tism. Because cupping was
widely used in Chinese
folklore culture, the tech-
nique was inherited by
modern Chinese practi-
tioners. It is established as
an official therapeutic
practice in hospitals all
over China.
The
U.S.
National
Institutes of Health says on
its website that cupping “is
considered generally safe
for healthy people when
performed by a trained
health professional.” While
saying the placebo effect
may account for some
claimed health benefits, it
also cites recent research
that found it may be an
effective short-term treat-
ment for chronic neck and
lower-back pain.
I
ran
into
Sok
Pheakdkey, a 39-year-old
driver at a local construc-
tion company, at a cupping
clinic where he had
undergone treatment for
fever.
“Now I feel I am fully
recovered. Do you see the
sweat coming from my
head and back? That
means the fever is gone,” he
said. He said the medicines
he bought from a pharmacy
brought his fever down, but
only for a while.
“I don’t mean to say that
I don’t trust medicines. But
in my experience, the best
way to treat these illnesses
is coining and cupping. My
body seems to be addicted
to this type of treatment
even though it hurts,” he
said.
The Cambodian Health
Ministry does not advocate
cupping, and warns that it
could be a health risk.
Health Ministry spokes-
man Ly Sovann told me
that the practice is not
known
to
cure
any
illnesses, and in fact can be
dangerous for people with
high-blood pressure or
heart problems. Still, the
practice is not banned in
the country because it is
almost a way of life for
Cambodians, he said.
“My advice is that Cam-
bodia people should start
changing their habit. They
should consult physicians
or doctors first if their
illness is something related
to high-blood pressure and
heart attack. Then after
they talk with the doctor, of
course, they can do coining
or cupping if they prefer,”
he said.
TALKING STORY IN
ASIAN AMERICA
WEIGHTLIFTER’S WORLD RECORD. Long Qingquan of China competes in the men’s
56-kilogram weightlifting competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Long
won the gold medal and set a world record. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)
male to win an Olympic weightlifting which would make Hsu a double gold
medal and the second weightlifter to medallist.
“I am very happy and very excited,”
win in Rio, joining Sopita Tanasan,
who won gold in the women’s she said.
Team doctor Lin Yin-Chou said
48-kilogram. Nine Thai women have
Hsu was battling a strain in her
won medals in weightlifting.
In the women’s 53-kilogram thigh, and it was the “intelligence of
category, Hsu Shu-Ching of Taiwan our coaches” that pushed her to gold.
“We have been wanting this gold
won her first Olympic gold medal
when Li Yajun of China failed to medal for some time and it is
especially pleasing because she has
complete the clean and jerk.
Li set an Olympic record in the first had an injury that she has been
round snatch by lifting 101 kilograms carrying,” Lin said.
A tearful Hidilyn Diaz of the Philip-
to take the lead into the clean and
jerk. She was the last lifter to pines won silver after failing to medal
compete in the second round, and in the last two Olympics. She lifted in
needed to lift 126 kilos to win gold. the 58-kilogram class in the 2008
Her high entry total on the start list Beijing Games as a 17-year-old and
made her a favorite for the gold, but impressed many in the field, but she
failed on all her attempts at clean and
she failed to medal.
When Li didn’t complete her score, jerk in London. Diaz dropped down to
the gold went to Hsu, who lifted 100 the lighter class for Rio, which had
kilos in snatch and 112 in clean and just seven competitors.
“I have tried so hard. I have
jerk for an overall score of 212 kilos.
Hsu is the reigning world champion stumbled many times,” Diaz said. “I
and won silver four years ago at the wanted to quit, but now all of my
London Games. But London gold sacrifices have paid off.”
Jin Hee Yoon of South Korea won
medallist Zulfiya Chinshanlo of
Kazakhstan failed a doping retest bronze. She had won silver at the
and could have that medal revoked, 2008 Beijing Games.
Only masters of spin win at Olympic-level table tennis
Continued from page 4
... they don’t need too much practice
since they are already good. But we
always need practice,” Dimitrij
Ovtcharov, the German world No. 5
player and the bronze medallist in
London, said in an interview after a
practice session at the Riocentro
arena.
Ovtcharov notes two Chinese
players who were practicing nearby,
world No. 1 Ma Long and world No. 3
Xu Xin, were rocketing the ball at
each other in a rally that lasted for
what seemed like half-an hour, their
wrists flicking the ball so that it spun
in a blur just over the net, each player
progressively moving back from the
table until they were 10 feet away, yet
still putting the ball exactly where
they wanted.
“They are practicing the whole day
because of spin,” Ovtcharov said.
“Repetition after repetition will get
you more feeling, and if you get more
feeling you will react better under
pressure.”
Spin, done right, is
often ugly — or unnoticed
Another paradox about spin:
Despite its importance, not many
people watching the Olympics realize
it’s happening at all.
The rapid rotation on the small ball
is simply too hard to see.
Therefore, some spectators will be
confused when an opponent botches a
return of a masterful slow-topspin
shot, for instance, wondering why
that’s so much harder to hit than a
scorching smash.
Spin is also a great leveller.
When two players who know each
other’s game intimately play against
each other, table tennis is often very
fun to watch: long, exciting
exchanges, with smash after smash.
“But if you don’t know each other so
well, the game doesn’t look so nice
sometimes because the players don’t
adapt to each other’s spin,”
Ovtcharov said. “With no spin, the
better one would have it a lot easier
and there would be a lot less
surprises.”
The game is filled with specialists,
like the Spaniard He, who deceive
and frustrate opponents with spin.
It’s not always pretty, but it works.
Spin can often be seen in the games
of “choppers,” defensive specialists
who use backspin to slowly chop an
attacking opponent’s ball back at
them, over and over, negating attacks
and waiting for a mistake.
It only works with spin.
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