Weightlifting -- Preliminary Round Morning Session
59kg -- Group B
Ikehata Leads After Group B Session: Japan's Hiroshi IKEHATA is in first place after competition in the Group B session of the 59kg weightclass in Sunday's action of the Centennial Olympic Games at the Georgia World Congress Center. IKEHATA set a personal record of 132.5kg in the snatch and tied his personal best in the clean and jerk with a 165.0kg lift to forge into an early lead and maintained it throughout the 10-athlete Group B session, finishing with a 297.5kg total. Hungarian Zoltan FARKAS ended in second, while Bryan JACOB of the United States placed third. JACOB, the hometown crowd favorite and native of nearby Alpharetta, Georgia, tied his own American record on his second snatch with a lift of 122.5kg, while also matching the American record with his second clean and jerk lift of 150.0kg. Competition continues this evening with the Group A session which includes the two current world record holders. Turkey's Hafiz SULEYMANOGLU owns the top snatch mark and Bulgaria's Nikolai PESHALOV posses the best mark in both the clean jerk and overall total. At the completion of the Group A competition at approximately 18:00, the medals for the 59kg class will be awarded.
Group B top finishers: Hiroshi IKEHATA (JPN), 297.5kg; Zoltan FARKAS (HUN), 280.0kg; Bryan JACOB (USA), 272.5kg.
Local favorite Bryan JACOB on his performance, "I'm certainly pleased. I told everyone coming in that if I got a personal best, I'd be happy."
59kg -- Group A
World Record Lift Steals Away Gold Medal: With his last attempt in the clean and jerk, TANG Ningsheng of the People's Republic of China swiped the gold medal out of the hands of Leonidas SABANIS of Greece with a world record-tying and Olympic-record setting lift of 170.0kg at Sunday's Group A session of the 59kg weight class. However, in weightlifting no ties are kept for world records with the only officially recognized mark reached by the person who achieved the lift first. As the competition had reached its climax and while still holding the weight over his head, TANG's coach YANG Han Shiao ran onto the floor to also celebrate a new overall world and Olympic record of 307.5kg. The day's competition began with great drama in the snatch as seven athletes attempted weight in their first lift within 10kg of the world record. Also on the record-setting day, a snatch world junior record was broken by 17-year old XU Dong of the People's Republic of China, in a competition that remained close throughout the afternoon. Included in the drama was the withdrawal of two athletes after the snatch and two more who received no lifts in an attempt to keep up with the frontrunners. Two athletes from Group B, Hiroshi IKEHATA of Japan and Zoltan FARKAS of Hungary also remained in the medal hunt late into the competition, but finished fourth and eighth, respectfully.
Final Results: Gold, World Record: TANG Ningsheng (CHN), 307.5kg; Silver, Leonidas SABANIS (GRE), 305.0; Bronze, Nikolay PECHALOV (BUL), 302.5.
See story.
As TANG held the medal-winning weight above his head, his coach, YANG Han Shiao, ran onto the mat and yelled, "Drop it. Drop it."
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| Pin trading was one of the most popular Olympic sports, with more than 1.2 million pins changing hands during the Games in the Coca Cola Pin Trading Center at Centennial Olympic Park. |