The Chinese seemed most animated by it all. A nugget of enthusiastic supporters waving Brazilian flags and cheering every clean jerk and snatch.

Women's weightlifting tried to make a case for itself in Pavillion Two of the Riocentre sprawl south of Rio city centre. Weightlifting has one of the most egregious records in Olympic sport of doping – a Russian here and a Turk there, an Albanian or a Kazak. It is a story of excess in dead weight and of the frequency World Anti Doping Agency (Wada) agents descend on their training camps with specimen containers.

It is a sport that has in a way ghettoised itself as a freak show but is loved enough by the International Olympic Committee to be welcomed back every four years. It is a sport China, holder of the snatch record in the 53kg division, dominates

At Sydney 2000, Xia Chang chalked her hands, slapped her thighs and incongruously heaved 100kg, almost twice her body weight above her head.

In the clean and jerk, a two movement lift to the chest and then over the head, Kazakstan’s Zulfiya Chinshaulo added a few more rings of steel and when she was finished 131kg looked down at her from above her head.

To that background, the raised stage was the domain of China's Li Yajun, Dewi Safitri from Indonesia and Hsu Shu -ching from Chinese Taipai, who were leading yesterday's event.

Muscle bulge

A long-armed swinging camera to one side creepily lowered down beside the lifters to record every stress point, nerve twitch and muscle bulge.

Safitri screamed and looked at the weight. She washed her hands in chalk and dropped into a hunker. But the 80kg were too much and the weights pushed her back and away.

She came out again – and again her body was propelled backwards. On the third attempt she threw up the bar and squatted down on her haunches millimetres from the ground.

For a second she struggled to straighten her legs. Then as if hydraulic fluid was being pumped in the muscles slowly raised the bar, looked out at the crowd smiling and holding until the nod came from the judges that she could throw the iron away.

Rebeka Koha from Latvia – more mission-like and earnest – strode across the stage, chalked up, looked at the bar and threw it above her head in a no-nonsense snatch.

But this was all titillation before the real thing. They didn’t want the Korean Yoon Jin-hee, who banged up 88kg and got keen on 90kg to set a mark but stepped forwards in a lurch, her technique failing in a lethal manoeuvre that allowed the weight to fall inches behind her back.

They didn’t even want Brazilian Rosane Santos Reis Dos, who lifted 85kg and came back for more at 90kg. Almost stuck in the squat position, the crowd rose and screamed. She seemed locked but slowly straightened out, the bar tilting to the right, then straightening, locking out to a roof raising howl.

But the crowd wanted China. They wanted the leading lifter Li Yajun, who had snatched 96kg, clean and jerked 123kg and led the field with 123 points.

She sat in the back room watching the drama, Hsu going 92kg and then equalling Li’s 96kg. Li emerged all sweaty and blowing and unsmiling asking for 98kg, two below the Olympic record and whisked it up.

Break the record

Hsu asked for 100kg, to equal Xia’s Sydney Olympic mark. She got it. The crowd howled again. Li asked for 1kg heavier to break the record.

Almost effortlessly she squatted, furrowed her brow and shunted upwards. One hundred and one kilos, Olympic record done, she wanted more.

Now in the mood, the world mark of 103kg sat coldly on the floor as she prepared.

Cameras pointed in behind the backdrop. She walked out, bent her knees and rolled her hands on the bar. She stood up and fell down in one violent movement but something gave.

Some minor point of weight distribution fractured and the lift fell apart. But she had won the snatch and she smiled for the first time. Believe. Well, the crowd did.