Twice Olympic champion Hossein Rezazadeh of Iran will skip the Asian Weightlifting Championships as part of his preparations for the Beijing Olympics.

Rezazadeh, known as the "Iranian Hercules", won Olympic gold in the 105kg category in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) and was named the World's Best Weightlifter by the International Weightlifting Federation in 2000, 2002 and 2004.

"Many of Asia's best champions, including Rezazadeh, have decided to pull out of the Asian games in Japan to practice more for the Beijing Games," Mahmoud Abdollahi of the Iranian weightlifting federation said.

"Rezazadeh will definitely take part in the Beijing Olympics."

Rezazadeh suffered a knee injury last year after a car accident and has not taken part in an international competition since.

Reuters