Fearless Turk Halil Mutlu, who confirmed his place amongst the legends of weightlifting by winning a third Olympic gold medal, issued a challenge yesterday to China's new generation of lifters ahead of the 2008 Beijing Games.
"I am not scared of my competitors, just scared of myself," said Mutlu, who is the ultimate showman. "I know how to win. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics there are going to be lot of locals [Chinese] and I invite them to compete against me."
Mutlu, nicknamed the "Little Dynamo," repelled the challenge of China's Wu Meijin to win the 56kg gold medal on Sunday.
He joined compatriot Naim Suleymanoglu and Greek superstars Pyrros Dimas and Akakios Kakiasvilis as a three-time Olympic gold medallist.
But the tiny Turk made it clear that he is not finished yet, although he waved goodbye to the flyweight division.
"I found it hard to lift the kilos [in this competition] so I have decided to no longer compete in the 56kg [flyweight] class -- I will move up to 62kg for good," said Mutlu, who won the world title at 62kg last November.
"If you feel fear you should not push yourself. I apologize now to Wu [Meijin] as we will not be meeting again at the 2008 Beijing Olympics," added Mutlu with a nod to the silver medallist.
Wu, the reigning world champion at 56kg, said that if Mutlu stuck to his decision not to compete in the category in Beijing the competition would be "rather boring."
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