China’s super-heavyweight Olympic champion and world record holder Li Wenwen was withdrawn at the final verification of entries for the competition, which is due to run from tomorrow until October 7.

Li sustained the injury during the recent World Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where she failed to make a total. 

Her absence leaves China with a team of 13 in Hangzhou, six women and seven men.

The final number of entries is 183, of which 83 are women and 100 men.

North Korea, which has not competed in international weightlifting since 2019, has 14 athletes entered.

Li retired after two failures in Riyadh and left the venue with her right arm packed in ice halfway through the final women's contest on September 16.

After the recent doping-related disqualification of four years of results achieved by the Russian Tatiana Kashirina, who has been suspended for eight years, Li holds the record for the biggest legitimate total ever lifted by a woman with 335 kilograms. 

She achieved it in 2021 a few months after winning Olympic gold in Tokyo.

In Li's absence Park Hye-jeong of South Korea, who won the world title in Riyadh with a total of 289kg, will be clear favourite in Hangzhou.

The Asian Games is not an Olympic qualifier, and does not have four of the 10 Olympic weight categories on the programme – women’s 71kg and 81kg, and men’s 89kg and 102kg.