Topic: Nobody predicted Sa as a gold medalist

[walt lampert]

Brooke ,  Sagir IS a walking fast twitch fibre!  When you look at what he has to workwith (in terms of musculature) and what he gets out of it , he is simply freaky.  Yes, his elbow was bothering for sure but he still got under 165 3 times with absurd speed.  Of course I am sure there are "other" reasons for his less than optimal performance.  Hope it isn't the last we see of him , he is still young .  I think about 23 since he was 19 in Athens.  The Asians are truely phenomenal.  I caught the womens A group in the 69kg . class and Liu Chuanhong is just about perfect to my imperfect eyes.  She seems flawless to me.  It looks like Oxiana Silvenko is starting to do a repeat of Zareema Kaseeva. Both have clean and jerked 157 kg. and are shadows of there former selves and I think I know why.  Things change fast .

Walt

[Jacek Lesniewski]

I actually predicted 2 medals for South Korea in 77kg. 

This was easy - they both performed exceptionally well in 2007 Chang Mai, they were strong on C&J, and SA had actually best competition total in 2008 in the world.
With Stoitsov out, there were my top picks. It almost happened, Kim missed 206kg twice for the medal and was 4th.

[Matt Foreman]

I secretly predicted that Sagir would be unsuccessful.  I also think he'll be done shortly.  But if he's clean, I hope I'm wrong. 

[Brooke Burkhalter]

Matt,

What makes you think he will be done shortly?

It looks to me like the Turks just aren't getting the better stuff/undetectable stuff or maybe just maybe are off.  History throws red flags when countries dominate events (exception being genetic predisposition, ie. Kenyans) so handedly as some have and continue to do so. Then the truth comes out later.

[Dave Almeida]

Even though Sagir bombed he was clearly in the best shape hes been in since 2004 Athens. He wasn't jumping forward on all his snatches, bar speed was 10x better than it was at Euros. Physically he also looked similar to Athens. He was in top shape, he just had a bad day. I predicted he would bomb but my prediction was based on the fact that the turkish team was now clean and too proud to lower the weight. But that didn't seem to be the case with him. Strength wise everything was there. I wouldn't be surprised if he snatches 170+ again in his career if he wants to.

Why do you think he is done? Because he smiled at the end after he bombed when he hugged his coach? Or is it because you think he's getting busted for doping?

Most lifters don't train hard for 4 consecutive years in between Olympics once they reach the elite level and win gold at the olympics. They just put it all together for big competitions when they want to. This is easier to do after you spend 10 years developing a base of strength at a young age.

[kirksman teo]

I actually thought the square headed Korean (4th place) was going to take it, he looked very VERY thick and strong. Wonder what happened though.

What surprised me was that Taner Sagir bombed out. I was hoping for a better show from him. Watching all these matches, makes me want to join the Olympics really badly...4 more years...I wonder where I can get....

PS: I told my coach, that Li needed a mohawk haircut and some gel, and when he called the Chinese team, he actually said that to him. Lol!!