Kazakh lifters win golds in Asiad
The penultimate day of the 2010 Asian Games weightlifting competition belonged to Kazakhstan.
Olympic champion Ilya Ilyin and world champion Svetlana Podobedova topped their respective events on Thursday to break China's domination of the sport.
Ilyin was victorious in the men's 94kg division with a total lift of 394kg, just 1kg better than silver medallist Asghar Ebrahimi Farbod of Iran.
The Kazakh ranked only third behind Farbod (183kg) and South Korean Kim Min-jae (178) in the snatch event with a lift of 175kg.
But he hauled 219kg in the clean and jerk to edge the Iranian for the gold. Farbod managed only 210kg in the second session, failing at 213kg. Kim lifted 205kg in the clean and jerk for a 383kg total to
take home the bronze.
China's Zhang Shengguo made a last-ditch effort to salvage a medal but he managed only 210kg for a 380kg total, failing twice at 214kg.
"My result is not close to what I had achieved in training, but still I am happy to win this gold," said Ilyin, who made an unsuccessful attempt at 227kg that could have broken his Asian record by 1kg.
"In the beginning I was not expecting. But I was confident going into the clean and jerk," added the Kazakh, who missed this year’s world championships in Turkey due to a hand injury.
Farbod, meanwhile, was happy to bring home a medal despite falling short of a victory.
"I know I can do better, but I think I've got a good result today," the Iranian said.
Podobedova made it a double celebration for Kazakhstan at the Dongguan Gymnasium when she easily ruled the women's 75kg division.
The 24-year-old made a total lift of 287kg. She lifted 130kg in the snatch and 157kg in the clean and jerk. Podobedova was so dominant that she opted to forego her third and last attempts in the two events,
denying her a chance to break her own world records.
"I had broken the (world) record at the world championships recently and I wanted to get prepared for the next worlds," Podobedova told AFP.
China's Cao Lei was a distant second with a 265kg total while another Kazakh Tatyana Khromova claimed bronze with a 250kg final tally.
The twin wins pushed Kazakhstan's gold-medal haul in weightlifting to three following Maiya Maneza's victory in the women's 63kg class.
China still leads the competition with seven golds but needs to sweep all three events in tomorrow's final day to match their 10-gold medal harvest at the 2006 Doha Asiad.
Tags: