Four lifting records fall

Press, 23 September 1988, Page 22

Four lifting records fall

NZPA-Reuter Seoul Angel Guenchev, of Bulgaria, broke four world records on his way to Olympic weightlifting gold in the lightweight (67.5 kg category yesterday, bringing to 12 the number of world records that have crashed in the competition. Guenchev, who dieted for six weeks to make the class, performed a back somersault of joy after giving Bulgaria their third weightlifting gold of the Games. He set four world marks — a snatch of 160 kg, a jerk of 202.5 kg and two improvements on the total, taking the record to 362.5 kg. The lifts improved on the previous records of 355 kg for the total and 200.5 kg for the jerk, both held by his compatriot Mikhail Petrov. The silver went to Joachim Kunz, of East Germany, with a total 340 kg which included a snatch of 150 and jerk of 190.

Bronze went to Israil Militosian, of the Soviet Union, the previous snatch world record holder, who managed only 155 kg. It was 3.5 kg less than his world best in Athens in May. His jerk of 182.5 kg gave him a total of 337.5. Guenchev’s victory restored Bulgaria’s domination of world weightlifting after ah interruption on Tuesday when the Bulgar-

ian defector Naim Suleymanoglu, now representing Turkey, twice improved his three world records in the featherweight (60kg) category. On Sunday, the flyweight Sevdalin Marinov broke two world records and won the gold and on Monday fellow Bulgarian Stefan Grablev took the bantamweight (56kg) gold. Guenchev, who also holds a world record for the snatch in the middleweight (75kg) category, said it took six weeks to reduce to the correct bodyweight for the Olympic lightweight event.

“I just did not eat what I wanted and also did not drink as much as I wanted,” Guenchev said. His victory was perhaps aided by the absence of the injured Petrov, but Guenchev said it meant nothing. Militosian appeared disappointed by his bronze medal. He had hoped at least to match the Olympic record of his cousin and mentor, Vartan Militosian, who won a middleweight silver at the 1976 Montreal Games.