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.