Weightlifting looks to lift two SEAG golds
Weightlifting looks to lift two SEAG golds
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
With several weight classes dropped from the roster and new
athletes yet to reach their peak, national weightlifters are
unlikely to bring back the five golds of two years ago from this
November's Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
"We're sending eight athletes but we're only targeting two
golds for the 2005 SEA Games," national SEA Games weightlifting
team manager Sonny Lumban Tobing said on Thursday.
Tipped as having the strongest chance of gold are Shinta
Darmariani, 19, in the women's 75 kilograms division and Sandow
Nasution, 23, in the men's 85 kilograms.
"Shinta has passed the 2003 SEA Games gold winning mark of
202.5 kilograms with a lift of 203 kilograms in practice, which
means she has a great chance to win gold," Sonny said.
"For Sandow, with his total lift of 330 kilograms, he has no
real competitors."
All of the country's golds in Vietnam were contributed by male
lifters, but none of them -- Yadi (56 kg), Gustar Yunianto (62
kg), Misdan (69 kg), Erwin Abdullah (77 kg), and Yudi Suhartono
(85 kg) -- are on the team this time.
Favorites in the women's division are Thailand and Myanmar,
while Thailand and Vietnam are expected to clean up in the men's.
Athens Olympic silver medalist Lisa Rumbewas is one victim of
the reduction in medal events. She has moved up to 58 kg after
the Philippine organizers did away with the 53 kg class.
"This situation forces Lisa to compete with stronger lifters
from Thailand and Myanmar, thus diminishing her chance to win
gold," he said of the 25 year old.
Other team members -- women's 69 kg lifter Beti Feriani, 20,
men's 69 kg lifter Mesdan Yunip, 29, Bayu Apriliawan (men's 94
kg), 17, Reinaldi (men's 105 kg), 21, and Dedi Aprianto (men's
+105kg), 17, -- would do well to medal based on their current
form.
Mesdan, he added, would have been a strong gold medal
contender but for an abdominal injury.
Two women lifters -- Citra Febrianti, who is pregnant, and Ani
Suprapti -- were dropped from the national squad for the Games.
"We cannot prohibit a woman from getting married and having a
child so we were forced to remove Citra from the team," Sonny
said.
"Ani Suprapti, on the other hand, failed to show her best form
during training with a total lift of 204 kilograms, far below her
best of 212 kilograms in the 2004 National Games," he said.
The 10-class weightlifting competition will be held from Dec.
1 to Dec. 4 at the Bacolod City Convention Center.
"The venue is quite comfortable as the hotel and location of
the weightlifting are the same," he said.