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Weight lifted Reinstated Bulgarian wins medalPosted: Monday September 25, 2000 12:00 AMUpdated: Thursday November 09, 2000 11:18 AM
SYDNEY, Australia (CNNSI.com) -- Bulgaria went from shame to silver in just a matter of hours Monday. Alan Tsagaev of Bulgaria was given the right to lift only hours earlier and went on to win silver in the 231 1/4-pound (105 kilograms) weightlifting. Hossein Tavakoli of Iran won the gold medal. Bulgaria had previously won a weightlifting gold, a silver and a bronze in the Olympics, but lost all three when each lifter was tossed out for testing positive for a banned drug, a diuretic. Tavakoli lifted 518 pounds (235 kg) on his final lift to overtake Tsagaev, who had led for most of the clean and jerk after also raising 518 pounds. Tsagaev could have won the gold, but couldn't make his final lift of 523 1/2 pounds (237.5 kg). The 22-year-old Tavakoli, whose coaches kissed in celebration after he hit the winning lift, won with a total of 936 3/4 pounds (425 kg). Tsagaev lifted 931 1/4 pounds (422.5 kg). Tavakoli, who leaped onto the medals stand after winning, had a five-pound lead against Tsagaev going into the clean and jerk. "I hope all of Iran is proud of me," Tavakoli said. "I am certainly surprised. It doesn't get any better than this. I can't imagine what kind of celebrations they are having in Iran." Asked what he would say to those celebrants, Tavakoli said, "Tell them I said, 'Hi' -- and thank them for praying for me." Said Assad, one of eight Bulgarians who were essentially traded to the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar for $1 million last year, got the bronze medal. After Bulgaria was banned, two other Qatar lifters who formerly competed for Bulgaria unexpectedly were pulled out of competition.
"I came here to win a medal. It doesn't matter what medal," Assad said. "I'm happy with the result." Assad said that only the second Olympic medal won by his adopted country should make him "a champion for all the youth of Qatar." Qatar's only other Olympic medal was a bronze in the men's 1,500 meters in 1992. Tsagaev did not speak with reporters after all three lifters spent more than an hour in doping control following the lifting. In a wide-open weight class in which nearly every lifter had a chance to win, it appeared for a while that no one would. Denis Gotfrid, the world champion from the Ukraine, was in position to win after putting up 418 3/4 pounds (190 kg) in the snatch, in which the bar must be raised over the head in a single motion. However, he missed all three lifts of 507 pounds (230 kg) in the clean and jerk, the third miss coming after he appeared to lift the weight only to lose it at the last instant. In the clean and jerk, a lifter raises the bar to the chest before taking it overhead. After the positive Bulgarian drug tests, the International Weightlifting Federation banned the country from international competition for at least a year, and barred its weightlifters from the rest of the Olympics. It was the second drug scandal involving Bulgaria's wildly success weightlifting powerhouse in the last four Olympics. However, Bulgaria successfully appealed Monday to the Court of Arbitration for Sport -- mere hours before the 231 1/4-pound finals -- to lift the ban on Tsagaev. The court ruled that the international federation should have given Bulgaria the chance to pay a $50,000 fine, as per the IWF's rules, rather than seeing its athletes banned immediately. Tsagaev was not personally implicated in the drug scandal. Romania's weightlifters were allowed to compete in Sydney after its national Olympic committee paid the $50,000 fine following three positive, pre-Olympics drug tests. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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