Turkey and Russia dominate

ANTALYA (TURKEY), NOV. 12 Gymnast-turned-weightlifter Valentina Popova of Russia broke two of her own world records at the World weightlifting championships as the Russian women claimed the most gold medals at the tournament.

Turkey, supported by a raging home crowd, won the most medals for the men as the competition drew to a close on Sunday.

Popova, who first started weightlifting after the birth of her daughter five years ago, swept her 69-kilogram weight class. She set records by lifting 115.0 kilograms in the snatch and 257.5 kilograms total on Thursday. Popova and her countrywomen took home nine golds.

In the men's competition, small but powerful Halil Mutlu set a world record, lifting 138.5 kilograms in the men's 56-kilogram weight class, giving Turkey the first three of its five gold medals.

Turkish men also won two silvers and a bronze. Qatar - A team packed with former Bulgarian weightlifters - won five golds and a bronze. Saeed Salem Jaber, formerly Yani Marchokov, swept the highly coveted over 105-kilogram weight class with a combined 460 kilograms, to claim three golds. Also, Henadzi Aliashchuk of Belarus pumped 181.0 kilogram in the clean-and-jerk for a world record in the men's 62-kilogram weight class. The Russian women may have won the most golds, but it was the Chinese women that took home the most medals - winning 14.

Last Sunday, Gao Wei swept her weight class to take the first three medals of the championships, and Xiao Ying gave the team two more golds in the women's 63-kilogram category. Still, second place wasn't bad for a team that didn't send any of its four Olympic gold medallists to Antalya.

Hungarian Gyongyi Likerecz set three junior world records for women on Friday to sweep the 75-kilogram competition. Perhaps the biggest surprise of the competition came on Saturday when Vladimir Smortchkov of Russia lifted 198 kilograms for a world record in the snatch, and caught a number of officials and media crews unprepared.

Weightlifting organisers had seriously underrated Smortchkov's potential and scheduled him to lift during the day, when most television crews were not yet set up. And the team that wasn't there was the one that caught the most attention: the United States. A single American weightlifter, Jackie Berube of Escanaba Michigan, showed up in Antalya. Berube had to pay her own way to championships after USA weightlifting had cut funding for American athletes because of security concerns amid U.S. strikes in Afghanistan. Berube won a fair play award for her participation.

- AP

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Easy wins for Agassi and Hewitt