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Lin Weining of China Wins Women's 69kg Title
China's Lin Weining Wins Women's Weightlifting Gold Medal
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Chinese weightlifter Lin Weining narrowly defeated her rivals in the women's 69kg category to win China the third gold medal from weightlifting at the Sydney Olympic Games on Tuesday in Sydney.
Lin, world record holder of a combined 252.5 kilograms in the 69-kg category, lifted a total of 242.5 kgs from 110 kgs in the snatch and 132.5 kgs in the jerk.
Lin, 21, was behind Erzsebet Peresztegine Markus when the Hungarian topped the snatch with a new world record lift of 112.5 kgs but jumped to the podium with clean lift of 132.5 in the first attempt of the jerk.
The victory made a clean sweep of the two gold medals on offer on the fourth day of the Sydney Olympic weightlifting competition. Earlier Tuesay, Chen Xiaomin won the 63-kg category for China.
China also grabbed the gold on Monday through Yang Xia in the 53-kg category.
Markus, bronze medalist of the world championships last year, lifted a combined 242.5 kgs, the same weight as Lin but had to take the silver because she is more than one kilograms heavier than Lin.
The Hungarian, however, set the world record in the snatch with a weight of 112.5 kgs, beating the previous mark of 111.5 kgs set by Liu Dongping of China on July 6 this year.
The bronze medal went to Karnam Malleswari of India, who lifted a combined 240 kgs. She snatched 110 kgs and jerked 130 kgs for the medal, India's first in the current Olympics.
"I'm very happy that I won the first medal for India," Malleswari said. "I'm blessed to win the first medal, bad luck I couldn't win the gold."
Lin tried to set a new world record of 145 kgs after the gold medal had belonged to her following Markus' setback in 137.5 kgs, but the weight was too heavy for her to lift.
"She was too anxious tonight," said Chinese coach Shen Feng. "The pressure was so much that she didn't lift her best both in the snatch and jerk."
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