Guangzhou:
Indians expectedly finished in the bottom half of the results chart in the weightlifting events on the first day of the competitions in the Asian Games here on Saturday.
Commonwealth Games silver medallist Soniya Chanu improved upon her CWG performance by lifting a total of 170kg (75+95) but still finished fifth in women's 48kg category. She had lifted 167kg (73+94) in the CWG.
CWG bronze medallist, Sandhya Rani finished sixth in the eight lifters field with a total of 158kg (70+88), which is seven kilogram less than her CWG effort.
China's Wang Mingjuan ran away with the gold medal with a total lift of 285kg. She created new records in both snatch and clean and jerk with efforts of 91kg and 95kg respectively.
Thailand's Pensiri Laosirikul won the silver with a lift of 192kg (83+109) while the bronze went to Chen Wei-Ling of Chinese Taipei who had a total lift of 191kg (86+105).
In men's 56kg, V Srinivasa Rao and Sukhen Dey finished eighth and 10th respectively with below par performances.
Rao lifted 245kg (110+135), three kilogram less than his bronze-winning effort in the Commonwealth Games.
Dey, who won a silver in the Commonwealth Games, was far below his best with a total lift of 230kg (104+126), a whopping 12 kilogram less than his CWG performance.
World champion Wu Jingbiao of China won gold with a total lift of 285kg (133+152), seven kilogram less than his effort at the World Championships in Turkey in September.
South Korean Cha Kum Chol, who finished third in the World Championships, expectedly won the silver with a total lift of 276kg (128+148), which is four kilogram less than his effort in Turkey.
Indonesia's Jadi Setiadi won the bronze with a total lift of 271kg (120+151).