Olympic champion Chen Yanqing broke three world records in the women's 58kg class weightlifting on day 2 of the Asian Games on Sunday on a day when China won 13 gold medals out of the 29 on offer.

Chen, 27, snatched 111kg in her third attempt to beat the 110kg world record. She then went on to jerk 140kg surpassing the world record by one kilogram, thus also raising the total for the 'snatch and jerk' world record of the total to 251kg. The previous world total record of 242kg was set by fellow Chinese Gu Wei in 2005.

"I feel really great, my priority was to be the champion," said Chen, who came out of retirement this year in order to win a second Olympic gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

"I thought it over and over and then decided to train again for the 2008 Beijing Olympics," she said.

The world records were the cherry on the cake for the Chinese weightlifting team officials as China captured all six gold medals on offer during the first two days of competition.

"It is a gift to the host Doha and whole Asia," said Ma Wenguang, president of the Chinese Weightlifting Association, who was full of praise of Chen. "Chen is powerful, but breaking world records was not so easy for her. I am happy that she did that."

The day's other two weightlifting gold medals went to Olympic champion Zhang Guozheng in the men's 69kg division, and reigning world champion Qiu Le won the men's 62kg category.

Chinese women followed the men's successes to lift their ninth consecutive gymnastics team title at the Asian Games, beating North Korea into second place by a large margin at the Aspire Stadium.

China collected a total of 239.400 points, 10.850 ahead of silver medalists North Korea (228.550). Japan finished third in 225.950 points while South Korea rounded out the East Asian quatuor on 215.650 points.

China is likely to clean sweep all the gymnastics titles in women's disciplines, leading the five individual events in qualifications.

China also had a perfect ending in the table tennis event, collecting both men's and women's team gold. It was the Chinese men's seventh Asian Games table tennis team title. For the women, this was a sweet revenge, banishing the memory of their flop at the Busan Asiad two years past.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2006)