Sandow's gold gives RI hopes a lift

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post/Cebu City, Cebu

Sandow Waldemar Nasution delivered one gold in the weightlifting competition in the 2005 Southeast (SEA) Games, keeping the national team on target to meet its target of three gold.

Sandow recorded a total lift of 334 kilograms in the men's under 85 kilograms to finish first, followed by Thailand's Kraisorn Dadtuyawat with 317 kilograms and Vietnamese Luu Van Thang with 307 kilograms.

Sandow lifted 146 kilograms in the snatch to break the SEA Games record of 145 kilograms, and then 188 kilograms in clean and jerk, also bettering the Games mark of 187.5 kilograms.

On Thursday, Indonesia won one gold through Misdan Yunif in the men's under 69 kilograms and a silver from Lisa Rumbewas in the women's under 58 kilograms.

"He (Sandow) has met our expectations to win gold," national weightlifting team manager Sonny Lumban Tobing said.

"Now we are on the right track to win three gold, and we hope we will be able to meet our target in the remaining two days."

In the only other lifting event on Friday, the women's 63 kilograms division, no Indonesian athletes were in competition.

On Saturday, Bayu will compete in the men's under 94 kilograms, Reynaldi Saenal in the men's under 105 kilograms and Beti Feriyani in the women's under 69 kilograms.

Indonesia won five gold in the 2003 SEA Games weightlifting competition, but set a modest target of three for this year after the host reduced the number of events from 14 to 10.

Sonny has claimed that the reduction of the events was made to better the chances of the host lifters. He cited the omission of the women's under 53 kilograms division -- the specialty of double silver medalist Lisa Rumbewas -- which forced her to move up a weight class.

World championship silver medalist Junpim Kuntatean of Thailand outheaved Lisa for gold. Kuntatean, who won silver at the championships in Doha last month, beat her own Games record, set in Hanoi in 2003, The Associated Press reported.

The 21 year old lifted 126 kilograms in the clean and jerk -- a kilogram above her previous mark -- after a 101-kilogram heave in the snatch, also a SEA Games record. Her total was 5.5 kilograms over the old record of 222.5 kilograms.

Lisa could only manage a total of 216 kilograms, a lift that topped her silver medal performance at Athens last year.