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Zhan continues China's golden harvest in Olympic weightlifting
SYDNEY, Sept 22 (AFP) - China's Zhan Xugang completed a golden double on Friday by winning his second straight Olympic weightlifting title against a field weakened by the mysterious late withdrawals of three top lifters. Zhan, winner in the 69kg class in Atlanta four years ago, stepped up to the 77kg division and blew away a vastly reduced field with a world record equalling 207.5kg lift in the clean and jerk. He joined compatriot Ding Meiyuan atop the winner's podium on a golden day for China. Earlier the imposing Ding, current world champion, won the women's superheavyweight division in record breaking style to add a fourth gold to China's collection in the Olympic debut of female weightlifting. Ding was dubbed the "strongest woman in the world" after beating teenaged Pole Agata Wrobel in a fascinating display of power lifting from the female heavies. Zhan claimed top spot with a total of 367.5kg (160kg-207.5kg) beating Viktor Mitrou of Greece on lower body weight. Mitrou also totalled 367.5kg (165kg-202.5kg) with Arsen Melikyan of Armenia in third spot on 365kg (165kg-197.5kg). "I am very happy I got a gold medal today," said Zhan, who was only fourth at the 1999 World Championships. "I want to say thank you to all Chinese people and everybody who has helped me. It is a great day for Chinese weightlifting." On a day when weightlifting was shocked by two more drug positives on Bulgarian competitors, and the subsequent banning of the remaining three members of the squad from Olympic participation, the 77kg showdown provided another weird episode to the soap-opera like happenings. Two Bulgarian-born weightlifters representing Qatar at the Olympic Games were last minute withdrawals from the competition, apparently suffering from diaorrhea after a night out of the Athletes Village, along with a world record holder from Armenia. Salelem Nayef Badr formerly Petar Tanev, and Sulyan Abbas Nader, formerly Andrey Ivanov, pulled out and were joined in the sidelines by Khachatur Kyapanaktsyan of Armenia, who holds the world record in the snatch. No immediate reason was given for his non-appearance. Nayef, a five time gold medallist at the world championships, had been tipped as one of the favourites for the crown. Both men were among a squad of Bulgarian lifters who reportedly switched allegiances to Qatar for a one million dollar fee. Officials originally said that the Qatar duo were suffering from a virus but it was later claimed by a Qatari official that they fell ill after a meal in a Sydney restaurant. Bulgaria's Plamen Zhelyanzkov was also due to participate but was the first casualty of the International Weightlifting Federation's (IWF) decision to kick out the whole Bulgarian squad. The action came after women's 48kg gold medallist Izabela Dragneva and men's 62kg bronze medallist Sevdalin Minchev failed dope tests for using diuretics. On Wednesday, Bulgarian men's 56kg silver medallist Ivan Ivanov was stripped of his medal after testing positive, also for a diuretic. IWF official Sam Coffa said on Friday that he thought the Bulgarians had all taken the diuretic to lose weight to make their category limit rather than mask anabolic steroid use. He added: "But a positive is a positive and we have to send a strong message." In a bizarre 77kg clash, Ilirian Suli of Albania also withdrew after injuring his arm when he dropped the bar and Mohammad Hossein Barkhah of Iran failed to lift a weight in the snatch and was excluded. There were only four finishers in the A division and Sergey Filimonov of Kazakhstan, who competed in the earlier 'B' division for lower ranked lifters, narrowly missed becoming just the second competitor in Olympic history to win a medal from the 'B' group. Filimonov finished fourth overall.
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