Andrei Aramnau broke three weightlifting world records to help Belarus win their first Beijing Olympics gold medal yesterday.
The squat, 20-year-old world champion reset all records in the 105kg weight class with a snatch lift of 200kg, a clean and jerk effort of 236kg and a total lift of 436kg.
Former world champion Dmitry Klokov of Russia won the silver medal with a total effort of 423kg and a second Russian, Dmitry Lapikov, edged out Marcin Dolega of Poland for the bronze.
PHOTO: EPA
Aramnau set an Olympic record with his second snatch attempt of 197kg, erasing Dmitry Berestov of Russia’s Athens Olympics standard of 195kg.
The Belarusian then demolished Dolega’s two year-old world record of 199kg with a final 200kg heave.
The 20-year-old bursts with confidence — asked in a questionnaire to name yesterday’s most talented lifter, he answered “Andrei Aramnau” — and he kept calm not missing a single lift.
PHOTO: AFP
Dolega lost his nerve after Aramnau pulled past him.
In a bid to take back the record in the snatch, Dolega upped his weight to 201kg despite having failed to lift 200kg. He angrily pounded the barbell with his fist after the lift went wrong and failed twice more in the clean and jerk
The Belarusian equaled the eight year-old clean and jerk world record total of 430kg held by Denis Gotfrid of Ukraine with a second heave of 230kg.
Aramnau’s final lift of 236kg reset both Gotfrid’s eight year-old clean and jerk effort of 235kg as well Gotfrid’s all-time high total by 6kg.
“It was very hard, I’ve worked very hard for this gold medal for a long time,” Aramnau told reporters after the contest. “I expected the competition to be very difficult, but at home I can lift even heavier.”
A fuming Dolega thundered past reporters after the competition, refusing to answer any questions.
Aramnau kept his nerve even after mistakenly stepping onto the mat when it was Dolega’s turn and being sent back to the waiting area.
“I didn’t have any influence or pressure from that. I’m very stable psychologically and I think my Polish colleague was very stressed,” he said.
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