|
|
Saturday, September 23
Haworth doesn't risk losing bronze
Associated Press
SYDNEY, Australia -- A few hours after Tara Nott was handed
the Olympic medal the United States weightlifters hardly expected,
Cheryl Haworth made sure to give them the one they were supposed to
get.
|  | | Cheryl Haworth of the U.S. strains as she lifts 125kg in the snatch on her way to a bronze medal.
|
Haworth made all six of her lifts and, with a gold or silver
medal not a possibility, didn't have to push herself to get the
bronze medal Friday her coach said she simply had to have.
Not just for her, he said, but to give weightlifting the push it
needs in the United States to develop more Olympic-quality lifters.
"We had to have a medal," U.S. coach Michael Cohen said. "We
had to have a U.S. lifter on that podium. We weren't going to
jeopardize that medal."
The United States wound up with two medals from its female
lifters, its first in weightlifting since 1984.
Nott, among those rooting Haworth on, initially took the silver
at 105 pounds Sunday, then was awarded the gold Friday when
Bulgaria's Izabela Dragneva was stripped of the medal for using a
banned drug.
Nott passed up her own hastily scheduled gold medal ceremony to
watch Haworth lift, and a U.S. Olympic official accepted the medal
in her place.
"They are very good friends, and Tara just had to be here,"
Cohen said. "Obviously, we're very excited to win two medals. But
while I'm happy for Tara, I'm concerned about the problems in our
sport."
The 17-year-old Haworth, who attends a school for gifted art
students in her hometown of Savannah, Ga., lifted an
American-record 275½ pounds in the snatch, but still was 22 pounds
off the lead going into the clean and jerk.
So, with no chance to catch leaders Ding Meiyuan of China and
Agata Wrobel of Poland, the 300-pound Haworth played it safe and
didn't try to exceed her previous best of 319½ pounds in the clean
and jerk. She finished with a total of 595 pounds.
"I listened to my coach. He said to lift 145 (kg) for the
bronze and lock it in and that's what I did," said Haworth, who
initially got into lifting at age 13 to build up her muscles for
softball. "I'm certain I could have done more, but the bronze
medal was more important."
Ding broke world records in the snatch, the clean and jerk and
total lift to win the gold medal, totaling 661¼ pounds to edge the
19-year-old Wrobel by 11 pounds. The two have traded records for
most of the last year, and Haworth, who finished 66 pounds behind,
is not yet in their class.
The Ding-Wrobel-Haworth finish was the same as in the world
championships last year.
"Maybe by 2004 ..." Haworth said.
The entire U.S. lifting team was on hand to cheer on the
5-foot-9, Haworth, constantly shouting her nickname of "Fun."
Haworth's medal also was important because it helps give larger
teens who, because it is so fashionable to be slender, might have
self-esteem problems, Cohen said.
"Cheryl is very comfortable with her size," Cohen said. "She
is a very good girl that is not picked on at school, that gets to
go to all the prom dances, and has more boyfriends than you can
shake a stick at."
That Haworth is at the Olympics at such a relatively young age
is remarkable in itself. Like Nott, she didn't start lifting until
after the 1996 Atlanta Games, yet already holds all American
records.
Ding and Wrobel took turns breaking Chinese lifter Wang Yanmei's
previous world record of 354½ pounds in the clean and jerk before
Ding hit her final lift of 363¾ pounds and Wrobel missed her lift -- for the gold medal -- of 373¾ pounds.
"If she had made it that, I would have had a lot of regret,"
Ding said.
Wrobel had never before lifted such a weight, but said, "It was
for the gold medal. I had to try it."
Ding, whose coach rubbed her ear lobes between lifts for
encouragement, broke Wrobel's total lift record of 639¼ pounds set
July 8 in Prague.
Ding and Wrobel also each broke the snatch record before the
Chinese lifter finished with 297½ pounds. Wrobel put up 292 pounds,
more than her previous record of 286½ pounds also set in July.
|  | |
ALSO SEE
Finally: Nott has her golden moment
More Bulgarians test positive, leaving a gold for the U.S.
Forget ceremony, it's time to watch friends
Two more Bulgarian weightlifters kicked out
Colombia wins first gold by narrowest of margins
Mexico wins rare gold weightlifting medal
|
