2015 World Weightlifting Championships begins in Houston

The 2015 World Weightlifting Championships kicked off here on Thursday night with a grand opening ceremony at Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center, where the nine-day competition will take place. 

   This is the first time for the United States to host such championships in over four decades. More than 600 athletes from more than 100 countries and regions, including 15 athletes from China, will compete in men's eight categories and women's seven categories. 

   Besides a full 15-member team from the United States, players from China's Hong Kong, China's Macau and Chinese Taipei will also take part in the competition, which will end on Nov. 28.

   Results from the world championships will be used along with results from the 2014 event to determine the entry slots for the 2016 Rio Summer Olympic Games.

   China, a leading power in world weightlifting in recent years, has sent eight male and seven female athletes to Houston. 

   Yu Jie, one of the coaches for the Chinese men's team, told Xinhua that China, which has some great athletes, are ready to make good results and even some have the ability to win gold medals. 

   "We will compete in six categories for men and seven for women," Yu said. 

   In addition, officials from the International Weightlifting Federation on Thursday also held an executive board session and announced that Bulgaria will not be allowed to compete in next year's Olympic Games.

   Eleven Bulgarian weightlifters, including three European champions, tested positive for the banned anabolic steroid stanozolol prior to the European championships last March.

   The executive committee also took one Olympic slot away from Romania because of "multiple" positive doping results.

   The first world weightlifting championships took place in London in 1891, but it had not been a formal event until 1896 when the first Summer Olympic Games was held in Athens.  Endi