Topic: News: 2008 Olympics News

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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No medal, but strong showing for Farris
Shreveporter finishes eighth in 85 kg weightlifting competition

BEIJING — First came the weight, then came the wait for Kendrick Farris at the Summer Olympics Friday morning.

He hoped it would be worth it.

The 22-year-old Byrd High product had a successful round in the men's 85-kilogram (187-pound) weight-lifting competition at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Gymnasium.

Farris lifted 160 kilograms in the snatch and 202 in the clean and jerk for a total of 362 kilograms. That put him in first place among the 10 lifters competing in the early Group B round.

His clean-and-jerk and overall total were American records.

"A lot of prayer and a lot of hard work got me to this point and I'm excited about it," Farris said.

Farris had to wait to see where his performance stacked up — and if it would earn him a medal.

It didn't. He finished eighth.

Farris, coached by Kyle Pierce, was knocked out of medal contention by the 11-man Group A (the top-ranked competitors), which delivered the top seven finishers. Yong Lu of China (394kg) won the gold medal, Andrei Rybakou of Belarus (394kg) took the silver and Tigran Varban Martirosyan of Armenia (380kg) emerged with a bronze.

Farris didn't even watch the Group A competition. He had someone call him with the results.

"What's going to happen is going to happen," he said. "I can't do anything so I feel like it's pointless to watch.

Farris had placed 26th in the 2007 world championships in Thailand, where he could not achieve a successful clean-and-jerk lift and, therefore, had no total score. He was fourth at the 2008 Pan Am Games with 347.

"At the worlds, I was at the bottom in terms of emotion and morale," said Farris, who attributed his improvement to religious faith.

"I was pretty low. I was depending too much on myself, and that's where God comes into this for me . . . I knew I had to get back on it and everything paid off."

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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South Korea's Jang wins weightlifting gold

BEIJING (AP) - Super heavyweight Jang Mi-ran set three world records Saturday to claim South Korea's second weightlifting gold in Beijing and the unofficial title of the world's strongest woman.

Jang was so superior in the women's heaviest division that second-place Olha Korobka of Ukraine skipped her final lift, knowing she wasn't going to do better than silver.

The South Korean set new world records in both events _ snatch and clean and jerk. Her total score of 326 kilograms (718.7 pounds) was also unprecedented, beating the previous high mark by 7 kg (15.4 pounds).

Mariya Grabovetskaya of Kazakhstan took the bronze.

Jang, who has dominated the weight class in recent years, snatched 140 kg (308.6 pounds) and heaved 186 kg (410.1 pounds) in the clean and jerk.

In the snatch, the bar is raised above the head in one continuous motion. The clean and jerk is a two-part lift in which the bar is first raised to shoulder level before being pushed overhead.

In both lifts, the arms must be fully extended with elbows locked.

Jang's biggest rival, previous world record-holder Mu Shuangshuang of China, was missing from the competition because the Chinese prioritized weight classes in which they were more certain to win. Countries can only enter a maximum of four of the seven women's categories.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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"World's strongest woman" Jang Mi-ran misses Chinese opponents

By Sportswriter Wu Chen

BEIJING, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Four years ago at the Athens Games, Jang Mi-ran got a silver medal in the women's +75kg category weightlifting as Chinese lifter Tang Gonghong totaled a weight 2.5kg more than hers.

In Beijing, Jang finally claimed the title of "world's strongest woman" Saturday, breaking three world records, leading the silver medalist by 49kg.

Yet, this time, she didn't meet opponents from China.

In Athens, Tang successfully lifted 182kg, which she had only hoisted once during training sessions when she was left 10kg behind Jang.

"I respected Tang a lot," Jang said after winning the gold in Beijing.

After Tang's retirement, Jang began to dominate the category when she won the 2005 world championships.

However, she has been facing persistent challenge from another Chinese strongwoman Mu Shuangshuang since 2005. She beat Mu in three consecutive world championships only because of bodyweight advantage, and Mu also triumphed over her once at the Doha Asian Games.

Before the Beijing Olympics, one of the hottest topics for South Korean media and common people was whether Mu would compete at the Games.

Mu didn't take part in the Olympics as China gave up this category due to a rule which restricts each NOC's competitors to a maximum of four in women's events.

Jang said she didn't know about Mu's absence until the last moment before coming to Beijing.

"I would not be alone if I could compete with her," she said.

She was really alone in Saturday's event.

The 24-year-old took her first snatch attempt after all the other 10 lifters finished. She made three successful attempts and finished the snatch section with 140kg, bettering Mu's world record by one kilo.

She hoisted 183kg in her second jerk attempt, breaking Tang's jerk world record, and also Mu's world record of total, bettering it by 4 kilos.

She didn't stop. She renewed the minute-old records by successfully jerking 186kg, totaling 326kg.

Even her coach Oh Seung-woo was surprised by her performance.

"I had expected 185kg for her clean and jerk result, but she lifted 186kg," he said.

"Challenge has no limit," Jang told an after-game press conference, adding that she would break more world records in coming years.

She said China has showed fantastic power in weightlifting at Beijing Olympics, however, South Korea is also improving rapidly.

"The competition between China and South Korea in weightlifting will be more and more intense," said the newly-crowned.

South Korea has got two weightlifting golds in Beijing till now. The other gold was gained by Sa Jae-hyouk in the men's 77kg on Wednesday.

The country had only got one weightlifting gold in its Olympic history before the Beijing Olympics.

Jang said she would attend the London Olympics.

"I hope I can meet Mu there," she said.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Samoan weightlifter drops weights

Samoa's Ele Opelogue dropped the bronze medal lift in the women's 75 plus weightlifting division at the Beijing Games.

There was stunned silence in the gymnasium when the talented lifter, who had been in sensational form through the competition with easy lifts for a best snatch of 145kg and a solid technique in clean and jerk, hyperextended her back and dropped the lift at 152kg.

Opelogue had locked the weight over her head and squared her feet, when disaster happened.

She was most conscious of the reaction back home.

" We wish the country and every one waiting at home, I apologise to the whole country, with their prayers etc, but my knee went on me, and I apologise to the country and the Prime Minister of Samoa for not getting the bronze we deserve. However there is another day," she said through the Chef de mission Seb Kohlhase who translated for her.

The man who discovered the Samoan weightlifting prodigy, and brought her to Olympic Games standard, Paul Coffa, was devastated when she lost the women's 75kilogram plus bronze medal in these spectacular and heart wrenching circumstances.

Coffa brought Opelogue into the Oceania Weightlifting Institute when she was a teenager, selling cabbages along roadsides, and following her older brothers into the weights room.

He knew he had something special, her technique, her speed, her sharpness and focus immediately set Opelogue apart as a one of the greats.

She was up with the leaders throughout the competiton, and Coffa thought Opelogue had the bronze.

South Korea's Jang Miran took the gold medal, setting new Olympic and World records with a total of 326 kg, from a snatch of 140 and clean and jerk at 186kg.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Weightlifter Detenamo is a one-man team for tiny Nauru
By Melissa Isaacson

BEJING - If anyone can carry the hopes of an entire nation, Itte Detenamo appears well-suited for it.

At 5-feet-9, 331 pounds, the 21-year-old weightlifter is the only one-man delegation in the Beijing Games. And other than the inability to find a good coconut in the Athlete's Village, Detenamo, a soft-spoken, easy-going superheavyweight from the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, has no worries.

"I'm just really happy even though it's only me, a single athlete," Detenamo said of marching in the Opening Ceremony. "It's a bit funny but it's all right for me."

There was some discussion about the flag. No question, of course, whom would carry it. But how would he carry it?

"I keep telling him, 'Don't put it in the holder," said Leo D. Keke, Nauru's team organizer. "I tell him, 'Show them you're a weightlifter. Hold it up.'"

And so he did.

"It's an honor to represent my country," Detenamo said.

Detenamo and Keke rattle off some of the other sports played in Nauru, like Australian Rules football, soccer, cricket, rugby, basketball, volleyball, softball, track and field, table tennis, tennis, golf. But weightlifting is king.

Or at the very least, president.

Nauru president Marcus Stephen is the country's most successful athlete, a weightlifter who represented Samoa at the 1992 Barcelona Games.

That was before Nauru gained entry, at which point he competed for his home country at Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000.

"He was a great weightlifter," Keke said of the popular 38-year-old leader. "But he is a good president too."

Stephen's success virtually brought weightlifting to the island and popularized it to where it supersedes soccer as the No. 1 sport.

Detenamo came by it through his older sister Rosetta, a weightlifter; and his father Vinson, now the president of the Nauru Olympic Committee. Vinson took him to the gym when he was 10 and soon, Detenamo was training with Stephen.

"I was small when I trained with him," said Detenamo, who also has a younger sister in the sport. "And after I train, I stay back and watch him." Stephen is attending a Pacific Islands leaders summit or else he would be in Beijing to support Detenamo. He stays in touch with the athlete's coach, Paul Coffa, "all the time," said Detenamo.

Back in Nauru -- an island roughly the size of a chunk of ice that recently broke off a shelf in the Canadian Arctic (eight square miles) but much warmer -- unemployment is rampant (90 percent) but spirits high when it comes to watching the Olympics.

"They'll all be watching Tuesday," said Keke. "Itte is big in our country."

"Hopefully if I can get in the top 10, I'll be happy," Detenamo said. "For a heavyweight, that's big. It's tough to get here."

Nauru has had bigger Olympic delegations. Yukio Peter, a cousin of Detenamo's and a fellow weightlifter, is serving as an assistant coach here. Peter finished eighth in Athens but failed to qualify for Beijing. There have been six other Olympic weightlifters from Nauru.

The country could have sent a swimmer and a track athlete to Beijing as every nation can send one participant in each of the two sports, but Nauru chose not to.

"We didn't bring them," Keke said. "We don't have a swimming federation. We do have a track and field federation but we didn't think it's fair to the person to be brought here because they're not competitive enough. I know some of the countries bring theirs, but for me, it's quite an embarrassment."

Despite his solitary status, however, "I've never felt lonely," said Detenamo, who trains with 10 other lifters at the Oceania Weightlifting Federation in New Caledonia.

"The people who come from the different federations consider us a family," Keke said. "They train together and when one competes [here], they come in and support that competitor."

Keke just hopes Detenamo sticks around for the Closing Ceremony, unlike his memories of an Olympics not so long ago.

"In Atlanta, the athletes and the coach and the manager all took off to L.A. to go to Disneyland," the 60-year-old Keke said, "and I was the only one left to carry the flag.

"All the other athletes said, 'What sport are you in? Bowling?

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Haworth comes up light, finishing 6th in Olympic weightlifting
By Adam Van Brimmer

Cheryl Haworth's disappointment over her Olympic performance Saturday lasted for mere minutes.

A much stronger emotion - anger - took over, once the Savannah weightlifter saw that she finished sixth in the super-heavyweight class.

Haworth would have won a medal in Beijing if she had come anywhere near her personal best lift. Saturday's silver medalist - Olha Korobka of Ukraine - posted a score that was 22 pounds below the 631-pound total Haworth lifted at the 2005 world championships in Doha, Qatar. The bronze medal Saturday went to a woman who fell 37 pounds short.

"It's one thing to get out-muscled, to lose to somebody who - at your best - is just better than you," Haworth said. "But that wasn't what happened. And that's really hard for me to deal with."

Haworth's lackluster showing Saturday morning only compounded her frustration. She called the day's competition her "worst in recent memory." Her finish among the 11 female lifters in the 75-plus kilogram division (165 pounds and up) matched her showing four years ago at the Athens Olympics - a competition she completed despite suffering elbow injuries on her first lift.

Her health was an issue again in this Olympics. While pain-free, Haworth said the back injury that sidelined her for several months last fall and over the winter put her training too far behind.

"I knew based on my training cycle it wasn't going to be my day," Haworth said. "Even if I had pulled out the weights I attempted, I didn't feel even close to my strongest. If the Olympics were in December, we'd be having a conversation about the silver medal right now."

Haworth hefted a total 569.8 pounds in her two lifts Saturday. She snatched 253 pounds, failing at 258.6 on the final of her three attempts. She lifted 316.8 pounds in the clean and jerk, but she missed on a 330-pound try on her last lift of the competition.

Had she succeeded on the 330-pound lift, she would have at least put pressure on Kazakhstan's Mariya Grabovetskaya to match her and win the bronze. Grabovetskaya needed two attempts to make that weight and capture the medal. She finished 24 pounds ahead of Haworth, 11 pounds in the snatch and 13 in the clean and jerk.

South Korea's Jang Mi Ran won the gold, with record-breaking lifts in both the snatch and the clean and jerk. She broke the old marks with four of her six lifts. She lifted 107.8 more pounds than Korobka, the silver medalist.

"She was incredible," Haworth said of Jang. "I knew from the start she would blow everybody away, and she didn't disappoint."

Neither did Haworth, at least with her fans back home. Nearly 100 supporters attended a watch party at Aldersgate United Methodist Church. Organized by Haworth's home club, Coastal Empire Weightlifting, the gathering attracted Haworth's family and friends as well as fans from around town.

"For 75 people to come out and watch someone lift weights at 7 in the morning is unbelievable," said Haworth's coach, Don McCauley. "I've seen fewer people attend national championships."

Haworth was flattered to hear about the support.

"That's really great," she said. "I hope the competition was fun for everybody."

Haworth's lifts

Cheryl Haworth's top lifts Saturday at the Beijing Olympics were 115 kilograms (253 pounds) in the snatch and 144 kilograms (316.8 pounds) in the clean and jerk for a 259-kilo total. A lift-by-lift look at her performance:

Snatch

Lift 1 - 112 kg. (246.4 lbs.)

Lift 2 - 115 kg. (253 lbs.)

Lift 3* - 118 kg. (259.6 lbs.)

Clean and Jerk

Lift 1 - 140 kg. (308 lbs.)

Lift 2 - 144 kg. (316.8 lbs.)

Lift 3* - 150 kg. (330 lbs.)

* Attempt failed.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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European strongmen to defend honor in weightlifting
by sportswriter Wu Chen　

BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Batches of European top lifters will fight for the gold in the men's 105kg on Monday, trying to defend the glory of Europe in weightlifting.

It's the last-but-one chance for them to claim the title. Until Saturday, Asian lifters swept all the 12 golds on offer in men's and women's events, and in the men's 94kg category on Sunday, Ilya Ilin of Kazakhstan, once again an Asian strongman, is a hot favorite for gold.

Potential gold contenders include Andrei Aramnau of Belarus, gold medalist at 2007 world championships, 2006 world champion Marcin Dolega of Poland, and Russian lifter Dmitriy Klokov, 2005 world champion.

Russian Dmitry Lapikov, runner-up at 2006 world championships, and Athens runner-up Igor Razoronov of Ukraine will also have a chance.

However, the gold isn't locked by European lifters for sure, as Kazakhstan's veteran Bakhyt Akhmetov, who was ranked third in the list with an entry total of 421kg, will also try his best to fight for the gold.

In Athens, the 15 weightlifting golds were split by Asia and Europe as Asian lifters won eight and their European counterparts got seven.

However, the performance of European lifters was really disappointing at Beijing Olympics.

Two Turkish defending champions dropped off events after failed three attempts in snatch, several Russian top hands were always one step away from the gold, and the whole Bulgarian team was barred from the Beijing Olympics due to doping scandal.

European strongmen will also have a chance in the men's +105kg category on Tuesday. As legendary Iranian Hossein Rezazadeh pulled out of the Olympics due to a knee injury, the title of "world's strongest man" is open to competition.

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Kazakh Ilin risks arm to win
By Sophie Hardach. Editing by Alison Williams

BEIJING (Reuters) - Kazakhstan's Ilya Ilin won Olympic weightlifting gold in the men's 94kg class on Sunday with a make-or-break lift after injuring his left arm earlier in the contest.

"I knew that I'll either break my arm or do what I did," he told reporters, having beaten several close contenders to win gold with a total of 406kg.

Ilin snatched 180kg at the second attempt. He missed the third attempt because of the problems with his arm but returned for the clean and jerk. There, he failed the first attempt, but pressed on to lift a final 226kg.

"Now I don't think about it anymore," a laughing Ilin said after his victory. He said his coaches and doctor helped him continue the contest despite his pain.

Ilin is used to submitting his body to his will. Asked how he was able to lose excess weight to fit into the category, he said: "I lost 4kg in three days. I didn't eat anything, that's all."

The 20-year-old, who likes to read about psychology in his spare time, displayed a steely mind while several other athletes dropped the barbell or collapsed and curled up in pain in a bid to nail that elusive extra kilogram.

"No problem, the doctors will be right there," the commentator announced several times as the tension mounted and the close contenders set their weights too high, injuring themselves in the lifts.

Szymon Kolecki from Poland took the silver with a total of 403kg. Khadzhimurat Akkaev from Russia won the bronze, just ahead of Arsen Kasabiev from Georgia.

Olympic host China, which has dominated the weightlifting competitions, did not field a contender.

Having pocketed the gold, Ilin is ready to take a break from punishing his body with midnight training sessions and grueling contests.

"I just think of rest. I had a lot of injuries and I need some period of restoration," he told a news conference.