Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarak of Thailand claimed the title in the women's 53kg category weightlifting at Beijing Olympics on Sunday, setting a new Olympic record in clean and jerk.

She lifted 95kg in snatch and 126kg in clean and jerk for a winning total of 221kg. She attempted to break the world record of 129kg held by China's Li Ping, but failed.

"I want to go back home and celebrate with my family as Tuesday is the Mother's Day of Thailand," she said, adding that she hasn't been home for three years because of training.

Prapawadee, 24, who withdrew from the 2007 world championships, defended the honor of Thailand weightlifting in this category as the division's gold at the Athens Games was won by another Thai lifter Udomporn Polsak.

It's Thailand's first gold at Beijing Olympics. Thailand won three golds in Athens and set its goal to win two in Beijing.

She will be rewarded by 10 million baht (about 330,000 U.S. dollars) by the Thailand Weightlifting Association and 15 million baht by Thai government, according to Thai Olympic Committee president Gen Yuthasak Sasiprapha.

He distributed the success to two Chinese coaches, Zhang Baoshun and his predecessor Zhang Jiamin, who currently coaches the Chinese Taipei weightlifting team.

"They have done a lot to help improve Thailand's weightlifting," he said.

Zhang Baoshun said Prapawadee is good at clean and jerk before the event and it's proved by Sunday's competition. Prapawadee dominated the clean and jerk as she started with an attempt to lift 120kg, which no one else succeeded.

Zhang said the two Thai lifters' failure on Saturday posed great pressure both on him and Prapawadee, however, she succeeded in overcoming it.

"She is very smart and did good performance today," he said.

She changed her name Chanpim Kautatian to Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarak in 2007 as she was told the new name will bring her good luck.

"I believe more in myself than in the fortune-teller," she said. She trained hard, especially in clean and jerk after recovering from the injury of her left elbow.

However, the new name did bring her some luck.

"I'm lucky that China didn't enter lifters in this class," she said.

South Korean Yoon Jinhee beat Belarus' Nastassia Novikava because of a lower body weight for the silver medal as both made the two-lift total of 213kg.

It's a keen competition for the second place between Novikava, runner-up of the 2007 world championships and Yoon Jinhee, bronze medalist of the same event.

Novikava equaled Prapawadee in snatch with 95kg after both of them failed to lift 97kg, and Yoon Jinhee snatched 94kg.

Novikava failed her first attempt in clean and jerk and finished with 118kg, while her South Korean rival succeeded in her final attempt to lift 119kg.

Yoon said she had trained hard but her injury stopped her from being better.

"I failed to accomplish my goal for the Games, but I'm satisfied and I will try my best to do better next time," she said.

Novikava, who brought the whole Belarus team its first medal in Beijing, said she was aimed at more than bronze.

"At training sessions I had lifted more than I lifted at today's competition," she said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2008)