Summer Olympics 2000 Boevski beats teammate on final lift

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Sunday, September 24
Boevski beats teammate on final lift
Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia -- Two Olympic medals, two world records. Bulgaria's weightlifters will take this over a tarnished medal any day.

Galabin Boevski won a down-to-the-last-lift showdown of world record holders Wednesday with Bulgarian teammate Georgi Markov to take the gold medal at 152 pounds (69 kg).

Boevski won a few hours after Ivan Ivanov, a former Olympic champion and a silver medalist Saturday at 123 pounds (56 kg) had his medal stripped after testing positive for a diuretic, a banned substance.

The only way Boevski could do it was to match Markov world record for world record, and Boevski did, showing he is fully recovered from a knee injury that threatened his Olympic chances.

After Markov broke Boevski's world record by lifting 363¾ pounds (165 kg) in the snatch, Markov broke his world record in the clean and jerk by lifting 434½ pounds (196.5 kg) and tied his record for total lift at 788 pounds (357.5 kg).

Because Olympic marks are kept only in 2½ pounds increments, Boevski's clean and jerk will be listed in the Olympic record book as 429} pounds (195 kg).

With the Olympic gold medal secure after Markov failed to lift 424¼ pounds (192.5 kg) on his final attempt in the clean and jerk, Boevski added the extra few pounds to break his record of 352½ pounds (160 kg) set in last year's world championships.

Boevski injured a knee after those championships and has spent most of this year recuperating and rebuilding his leg strength. Because of the layoff, he wasn't even listed among the International Weightlifting Federation's top 20 at the weight.

Markov, who has the image of a snarling bulldog tattooed onto most of his left shoulder, lifted 777 pounds (352.5 kg) for the silver. Sergei Lavrenov of Belarus took the bronze at 749½ pounds (340 kg).

The gold medal was Bulgaria's 12th in the Olympics, the most of any country except for the United States and Russia. Bulgaria also produced two lifters who won medals for other countries in these games, Halil Mutlu of Turkey and Nikolai Peshalov of Croatia.

Bulgaria also attracts female lifters, too; two of the gold medalists in the first Olympic women's competition, Maria Isabel Urrutia of Columbia and Soraya Jimenez of Mexico, left home to train there.

Markov broke the snatch record of 358 pounds (162.5 kg) set by Boevski of Bulgaria during last year's world championships. Boevski matched his own record Wednesday before Markov broke it.

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