Indonesian weightlifter Sinta Darmariani vomited while unsuccessfully attempting to lift 133kg for gold at the Southeast Asian Games yesterday and was forced to settle for silver.
Competing against Vietnamese Thi Phliong Loan Nguyen in the women’s 69kg class, Darmariani easily lifted 94kg against Nguyen’s 100kg in the snatch in their first attempt and the 23-year-old from Bali was banking on making up for that gap in the clean and jerk.
Nguyen upped the ante, however, by lifting 104kg in her second snatch and 106kg in the third. Darmariani failed in her next two attempts to lift 98kg. In the clean and jerk, she lifted 124kg in her first, but Nguyen’s 226kg meant the Indonesian needed to lift 133kg for the gold.
Darmariani was struggling as she lifted the bar to her chest, but when she jerked the weights up her face contorted and she vomited on her vest and dropped the weight.
The third attempt was worse for Darmariani as she collapsed in tears.
“I wasn’t nervous. I was sick with fever,” she said. “I was still confident after throwing up. I didn’t even think of not attempting the third.”
After the medal ceremony, she vomited a few more times while officials and friends consoled her.
More anguish was in store for Indonesian weightlifters when top medal hope Sandow Nasution was eliminated in the 77kg men’s category after failing to lift an ambitious 140kg in all three attempts during the snatch.
The two failures left Indonesia in fifth position in the medals table with 12 golds. Vietnam were top with 18, followed by Thailand with 17 and Singapore third with 14 on the fourth day of the 11-nation competition.
Darmariani’s setback was somewhat compensated by Okta Dwi Pramita, who took the gold in the women’s 63kg category with a total lift of 211kg. Her rival, Thi Thiet Nguyen of Vietnam, lifted the same weight, but ended up with a silver because of her higher body weight of 62.75kg.
The 1.46m-tall Pramita ate a banana and drank water to lift her just above the 58kg threshold.
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