A goatherder-turned-weightlifter set a meet record at the Southeast Asian Games yesterday to help raise Indonesia’s gold tally to 11, as Thailand regained the top position with 13.
Thailand’s six golds yesterday came in shooting, taekwondo and cycling. It won the 10m air pistol women’s individual and team events as well as women’s 50m rifle prone. It also took gold in taekwondo men’s over-68kg, women’s 49-53kg, plus men’s cross-country cycling.
Thailand, which is expected to dominate the final tally in the 11-nation event, also has 20 silvers and 15 bronzes.
Eko Yuli Irawan, a 20-year-old villager from Indonesia’s Lampung Province, won the 62kg weightlifting category with a total lift of 300kg.
He lifted 135kg in the snatch, beating the previous record of 130kg set by Thailand’s Chom Singnol in 2001. In the clean-and jerk, Eko lifted 165kg, bettering 160kg by compatriot Gostar Junianto in 2003.
Eko’s total lift was a SEA Games record, beating Gostar’s 290kg.
Eko won the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics and a gold at the World Junior Championship earlier this year.
The son of a bicycle rickshaw driver, he was only 11 when he first joined a weightlifting club, receiving an allowance of 7,000 rupiah (less than US$1), which he gave to his parents to help make ends meet.
Indonesia’s other golds came in weighlifting’s women’s 58kg and men’s 69kg, plus karate’s men’s 84kg and above, taekwondo’s men’s 58-63kg and women’s 50m prone rifle.
Indonesia yesterday had 11 golds, one behind Singapore.
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