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Monday, September 25
Tavakoli edges Tsagaev on final lift
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- In a few hours, Bulgaria went from the
shame of Olympic expulsion to celebrating a silver medal it feared
it might not get the chance to win.
Hossein Tavakoli of Iran won the gold medal in the 231¼-pound
(105 kg) weightlifting Monday, but Alan Tsagaev of Bulgaria -- given
the right to lift only hours before -- got the silver medal.
Bulgaria had previously won a weightlifting gold, a silver and a
bronze in the Olympics, but lost all three when each lifter was
tossed out for testing positive for a banned drug, a diuretic.
Tavakoli lifted 518 pounds (235 kg) on his final lift to
overtake Tsagaev, who had led for most of the clean and jerk after
also raising 518 pounds. Tsagaev could have won the gold, but
couldn't make his final lift of 523½ pounds (237.5 kg).
The 22-year-old Tavakoli, whose coaches kissed in celebration
after he hit the winning lift, won with a total of 936} pounds (425
kg). Tsagaev lifted 931¼ pounds (422.5 kg).
Tavakoli, who leaped onto the medals stand after winning, had a
five-pound lead over Tsagaev going into the clean and jerk.
"I hope all of Iran is proud of me," Tavakoli said. "I am
certainly surprised. It doesn't get any better than this. I can't
imagine what kind of celebrations they are having in Iran."
Asked what he would say to those celebrants, Tavakoli said,
"Tell them I said, 'Hi' -- and thank them for praying for me."
Said Assad, one of eight Bulgarians who were essentially traded
to the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar for $1 million last year, got
the bronze medal.
After Bulgaria was banned, two other Qatar lifters who formerly
competed for Bulgaria unexpectedly were pulled out of competition.
"I came here to win a medal. It doesn't matter what medal,"
Assad said. "I'm happy with the result."
Assad said that only the second Olympic medal won by his adopted
country should make him "a champion for all the youth of Qatar."
Qatar's only other Olympic medal was a bronze in the men's 1,500
meters in 1992.
Tsagaev did not speak with reporters after all three lifters
spent more than an hour in doping control following the lifting.
In a wide-open weight class in which nearly every lifter had a
chance to win, it appeared for a while that no one would.
Denis Gotfrid, the world champion from the Ukraine, was in
position to win after putting up 418¾ pounds (190 kg) in the
snatch, in which the bar must be raised over the head in a single
motion.
However, he missed all three lifts of 507 pounds (230 kg) in the
clean and jerk, the third miss coming after he appeared to lift the
weight only to lose it at the last instant. In the clean and jerk,
a lifter raises the bar to the chest before taking it overhead.
After the positive Bulgarian drug tests, the International
Weightlifting Federation banned the country from international
competition for at least a year, and barred its weightlifters from
the rest of the Olympics. It was the second drug scandal involving
Bulgaria's wildly success weightlifting powerhouse in the last four
Olympics.
However, Bulgaria successfully appealed Monday to the Court of
Arbitration for Sport -- mere hours before the 231¼-pound finals -- to lift the ban on Tsagaev.
The court ruled that the international federation should have
given Bulgaria the chance to pay a $50,000 fine, as per the IWF's
rules, rather than seeing its athletes banned immediately. Tsagaev
was not personally implicated in the drug scandal.
Romania's weightlifters were allowed to compete in Sydney after
its national Olympic committee paid the $50,000 fine following
three positive, pre-Olympics drug tests.
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