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With only three lifters left, Zhan gets gold medal
2000-09-22
SYDNEY, Australia - This may have been the only time in Olympic history they almost didn't have enough medalists to stand on the medals podium. Zhan Xugang of China repeated as a weightlifting gold medalist as much by subtraction as by strength, overtaking Viktor Mitrou of Greece with his final lift in a depleted 170-pound (77 kg) field Friday. Because of expulsions, illnesses and injuries, only three healthy lifters -- one for every medal -- were still going when Xugang won on his final lift in the clean and jerk. Zhan was forced to move up from 154 pounds, where he won in Atlanta, to 170 after the Olympics reshuffled weight classes. He wasn't the favorite until top-ranked Zlatan Vanev and the Bulgarian team were expelled Friday after three Bulgarian medalists tested positive for drugs. Zhan and Mitrou each had total lifts of 810 pounds (367.5 kg), but Zhan won because of lower body weight. He skipped his last lift after raising 457 1/4 pounds (207.5 kg) -- a weight he had never lifted even in practice -- on the second of his possible three lifts in the clean and jerk. ``Before arriving here, there was less hope I would win a gold medal,'' Zhan said. ``But I did the best I had ever done in the clean and jerk, and I had some hope.'' Mitrou had taken the lead by raising 446 1/4 pounds (202.5 kg). ``The best I had ever done was 205,'' Zhan said. ``I'm very excited to win.'' He might be nearly as excited just to get some rest. ``I'm always very nervous,'' he said. ``Since I've been in Australia, I haven't had one good night of sleep.'' Now he knows how the International Weightlifting Federation's leadership feels following a week filled with drug scandals, stripped medals and questions whether the sport itself faces Olympic expulsion. Arsen Melikyan of Armenia took the bronze at 804 1/2 pounds (365 kg), just 5 1/2 pounds (2.5 kg) more than the morning's B group leader, Sergei Filmonov of Kazakstan. Bulgaria's exit not only eliminated the favorite, it also wiped out third-ranked Plamen Zhelyakov. Also, two former Bulgarian lifters who were among eight ``traded'' -- yes, just like in football or baseball -- to the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar for $1 million last year pulled out minutes before the lifting began. Saelem Nayef Badr, who won two gold medals in the world championships last year and was a threat to win the gold, and Nader Abbas sent word they could not compete because of ``food poisoning.'' There were no reports of any such intestinal problems until their former Bulgarian teammates were suspended. Qatar's team doctor declined to discuss the sudden illnesses, saying he was ``too tired.'' That left only six in the ``A'' group field. Then, it became five when Mohammad Hossein Barkhah of Iran bombed out by missing all three lifts in the snatch, thus eliminating him from the clean and jerk. There was more. In the clean and jerk, Dmytro Hnidenko of the Ukraine dropped the bar directly on his left elbow in mid-lift, drawing loud groans from the audience, and forcing him out after one lift. Ilirian Suli of Albania also skipped his final lift, apparently because of an injury, thus leaving three weightlifters going for three medals. Filimonov was in a virtual tie for the lead with Melikyan after the snatch and came the closest any ``B'' group lifter has in several Olympics of getting a medal. AP
With only three lifters left, Zhan gets gold medal (2000-09-22)1 (11285)
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