Instead, each weightlifter was given a handcart and ordered to carry a set of barbells to the new 2,000 square metre complex, where they will prepare for next year's Beijing Olympics.

"Other teams always hire porter companies when moving," coach Wang Guoxing told the First paper. "But for us, that was needless."

While the 360kg weight of each load was not a problem for the biggest among them, the lighter³ lifters struggled on a sweltering Beijing day.

"It was a little too heavy," said Zhang Ping, a former world champion in the featherweight class where the heaviest weight ever lifted was 182kg.