Two world records begin Asian Open

China's Zhe Cui and Vietnam's Van Cong Le lift new marks on the opening day of the 2015 IPC Powerlifting Asian Open Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan. 26 Jul 2015

Women in wheelchair waving in front of a bench press

Zhe Cui from China celebrates victory at the 2014 Incheon Asian Para Games.

ⒸIncheon 2014

By IPC

Two world records provided the perfect opening to the 2015 IPC Powerlifting Asian Open Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on Sunday (26 July), as China’s Zhe Cui and Vietnam’s Van Cong Le stormed to new marks.

Cui (101kg) retained her Asian title from 2013 in the women’s up to 41kg, before going on to add 0.5kg to the record of Turkey’s world and Paralympic champion Nazmiye Muratli with a 103.5kg fourth lift.

Nigerian Jonah Ben pushed 100kg to take a new junior world record and Open silver. Indonesia’s Ni Nengah Widiasih only needed one good lift of 95kg to claim the Asian silver and Open bronze.

Turkmenistan’s Roza Matyakubova (70kg) rounded-off the Asian medals.

In the men’s up to 49kg, Le (177kg) improved on his own world best to take the gold from Nigerian world champion Yakubu Adeosokan (176kg). Le’s title-winning haul proved to be just the warm-up for a successful fourth round world record attempt of 182kg.

Jordan’s Omar Sami Qarada (165kg) got the Asian silver and Open bronze, whilst Indian Farman Basha lifted 150kg to take Asian bronze.

Nigeria collected their second medal of the day courtesy of Roland Ezuruike (184kg) with Open gold in the men’s up to 54kg. Vietnamese lifter Bin An Nguyen set a new Asian record to take the Asian title, having thrown caution to the wind in the final round with a 183kg push.

Iraqi Mustafa Radhi (182kg) was not far behind Nguyen for Asian silver and China’s Jian Wang (178kg) completed the Asian podium.

Wang’s teammate Dandan Hu was in winning form once again in the women’s up to 45kg, having won gold at the Incheon 2014 Asian Para Games in October.

Hu only needed one successful opening round lift of 95kg to finish first ahead of India’s Sakina Khutan (78kg) and Uzbekistan’s Ruza Kuzieva (76kg).

The Almaty 2015 IPC Powerlifting Asian Open Championships will run until 30 July and feature more than 220 athletes from 32 countries in one of the biggest Asian Championships ever.

Live results and coverage are available at Almaty2015.com and updates and news published at IPC Powerlifting Facebook and Powerlifting Twitter.

Following Almaty 2015, powerlifters will head to the IPC Powerlifting European Open Championships in Eger, Hungary, from 24-28 November.