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Kakiasvilis wins third straight Olympic gold
SYDNEY, Sept 24 (AFP) - Akakios Kakiasvilis, one of the few athletes to have won Olympic golds for two different countries, added a third Games gold to his collection and a second for his adopted Greece with the narrowest of weightlifting wins on Sunday. Kakiasvilis played a cat and mouse game with his nearest rival, teenaged sensation Szymon Kolecki of Poland and beat him to the gold in the 94kg category on lower body weight after both lifters totalled 405kg. Russia's Alexei Petrov, one of the most controversial competitors in the sport who won gold four years ago in this category, was third on 402.5kg. Petrov captured the title at the Atlanta Games just two months after having a life ban for drug use lifted when the authorities accepted a bizarre excuse. The impassive Kakiasvilis took full advantage of Kolecki's failed attempt to go into the lead with a clean and jerk attempt on 227.5kg, 5kg lighter than the 18-year-old Pole's own world record. Kolecki dropped the bar on his shin and, after delaying his next lift, pulled out. The Greek attempted just one lift in the clean and jerk, successfully hoisting 220kg. Kakiasvilis, who was 1.52kg lighter than three time junior world champion Kolecki, claimed Greece's second gold medal in as many days after the victory of Pyrros Dimas on Saturday. He joined Dimas and 'Pocket Hercules" Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey in the exclusive club of lifters who have won three straight Olympic titles. Kakiasvilis, the current world champion, won his first gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games in the 94kg category under the name Kakhi Kakhiachvili and representing Georgia. When he took the 100kg title four years later in Atlanta he stood on the podium as the Greek anthem was played. The 31-year-old Kakiasvilis was just the second athlete in Olympic history to win gold medals while representing two distinctly different countries, the first being rugby player David Carroll who turned out for Australia in 1908 and the United States in 1920. Defending champion Petrov, fighting an elbow injury, nearly came unstuck in the snatch. He missed his first two lifts, nearly walking off the stage with the bar held shakily overhead on his second attempt, before summoning up a supreme effort and hoisting 180kg with his last attempt. It would have been an embarrassing exit for the Russian. Petrov, who won the world championships in 1994 and 1995 by huge margins, tested postive for steroids after his second win and was banned for life by the International Weightlifting Federation in March, 1996. The Russian appealed and was cleared to compete in the Atlanta Olympics after a former girlfriend came forward and confessed she had slipped steroids into his food and drink ahead of his trip to the 1995 world championships. Eighteen-year-old Kolecki, world junior champion in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and second overall in the 1999 senior world championships had been hotly tipped to stop Kakiasvilis taking his third gold. Former world junior champion Kouroush Bagheri of Iran, who celebrated his 23rd birthday three days ago, took a surprise 2.5kg lead after the snatch competition following a lift of 187.5kg, a personal best. He failed at 190kg which would have been a new world record. He managed just 215kg in the clean and jerk and finished fourth.
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