Golds go to Ukraine, Belarus

Eastern Europeans broke the records of Chinese women Tuesday at the World Weightlifting Championships. The new standards were set in the women's 138.6-pound class, the first world records in five days of the championships. Natalia Skakun of Ukraine made a world record clean and jerk with 303.6 pounds. The old mark of 302.5, was set by Xia Liu, from China, at the Asian championships. Hanna Batsiushka of Belarus snatched 249.7 pounds, beating the record of 248.6 by Chinese teenager Xiafeng Quiyang at the Asian championships this year. There have been other records broken, but only at the junior level. Skakun surprised herself, saying she had never lifted that much even in practice. Liu, the defending champion, tried to take back her record with a 330.6-pound final attempt. But she failed, giving Ukraine its first medal. It also was the first international medal for Skakun. Her previous best finish was seventh at the 2000 Olympics. Since then, she has been training hard in Kiev, with eight two-hour sessions a week. "Weightlifting is first on my agenda," she said. "Once I have reached certain goals, I will take care of my personal life." Armenian teenager Gevorg Davtyan, the 2002 world junior champion, won the silver. Reyhan Arabacioglu, of Turkey, took the bronze for the second time in three years. Only 19 of 65 attempts were successful as the lifters pushed themselves to take advantage of a field left wide open. Only two of the top 15 lifters in the world were entered.