Thai strongwomen sets world record
Thai strongwomen sets world record
By Christiani S.A. Tumelap
JAKARTA (JP): The first senior world record fell in the weight
lifting hall yesterday as Thailand's Khassaraporn Suta lifted
125.0 kgs in the clean and jerk of the women's 59 kg category.
Three SEA Games records were also broken.
It capped a mediocre day for Indonesia, with its women lifters
being beaten by Myanmar and Thai lifters and its men only managing to
steal one gold.
Indonesia and closest rival Thailand each won one gold, two silvers
and one bronze, followed by Myanmar and Malaysia with one gold each.
The new SEA Games records were set up by Indonesia's male and
female lifters, Erwin Abdullah and Fatwawati, and Malaysian male
lifter Hamidum Mohd. Hidayat, respectively in the 70 kg, 59 kg and 64
kg categories.
Suta told The Jakarta Post she had expected the gold medal. "I was
sure that I could make the lift, because I've lifted the same weight
during practice."
"This is my first world record ever and I'm really happy about it,"
she said, adding that she preferred the clean and jerk to the
snatch because the latter was more difficult.
Suta, who won the gold medal in Chiang Mai in the same category,
preceded her record-breaking lift with 92.5 kgs in the snatch,
giving her a total of 217.5 kgs. This was 2.5 kgs short of the
combined world record
Indonesia's lifters Tanti Pratiwi and Fatmawati were left miles
behind. They scored total lifts of 170 kgs and 95 kgs.
In the women's 54 kg category Myanmar's Kyu Kyu lifted 187.5 kgs,
2.5 kgs more than Tailand's Taengmo Muangpho and more than 5 kgs
more than Indonesia's Bastiah.
In the 59 kg category Tanti came second but Fatmawati was
unplaced because she failed to make any lifts in the clean and
jerk.
Fatmawati gained some comfort from the fact that she did better
than all her rivals in the snatch by lifting 95 kgs, 2.5 kgs more than
champion Suta's lift of 92.5 kgs.
Fatmawati's 95 kgs snatch also surpassed by 2.5 kgs the record set
by Thailand's Saipin Detsaeng in the 18th SEA Games in Chiang Mai.
One of the coaches of the Indonesian women's team, Imron Rosadi,
said he was really sad to see the female lifters lose the gold medals
to Thailand and Myanmar.
"This is a really sad moment. We're all very sad and
disappointed. If people want to criticize us, let them do so," he
said after the event.
Imron said the team's failure was related mostly to individual
lifters' weaknesses.
"But we can't, however, blame the failure on either the lifters
or the coaches," he said.
In the men's 70 kg category, Indonesian lifter Erwin Abdullah
won the gold with lifts of 137.5 kgs in the snatch and 170 kgs in
the clean and jerk. He beat Thailand's Ekkarat Sukhumanchan and
the Philippines Alfonso Aldanete into second and third.
Erwin said he had expected the medal but did not feel satisfied
because he could not make his final lift in the clean and jerk.
"I've lifted much better during practice. I was sure that I could
make my last lift. But, as you can see, anything can happen in a
competition," said Erwin.
In the 64 kg category, Malaysian Hamidum, took the gold medal for
his total lift of 287.5 kgs, followed by Indonesian lifter
Sodikin and Thailand's Suriya Dattuyawat.
Hamidum stole some of the plaudits as he set a new SEA Games record
in the snatch with his 122.5 kgs lift, 2.5 kgs better than the
old record set by Sodikin in Chiang Mai.