Men's 105kg

Monday, August 18, 2008

Aramnau (BLR) stole the show today, making all 6 attempts, winning the gold medal, and creating numerous Olympic, world, and world junior (according to the IWF) records. He ended with a 200kg Snatch and 236kg C&J for a 436kg Total. Only 20 years old, watch for this guy in the coming years. He lifted confidently and with excellent technique and speed.

Klokov (RUS) and teammate Lapikov (RUS) took silver and bronze. Klokov also went 6 for 6, putting on a great show for the crowd after his last Snatch.

These lifters pushed Poland's Marcin Dolega down to 4th position.

There were several problems in the back room during today's session. It looked to me like the locals had changed one key personnel position at the expeditor's (called marshall's in Beijing) table. The coaches had it right, but the call order and the attempt weights got all screwed up. This resulted in all sorts of officials trying to solve the problems in English, although none of them speak English as a first language.

It's odd to have problems like this come up on the next to last day of competition.

This session will air on MSNBC today about 11:55 a.m. Producer Jenny Nickell pushed for, and got, additional time for today's coverage. If you want to see more weightlifting on television, be sure to let NBC Olympics now this! They respond to your input.

Tomorrow's planned live Superheavy show is now going to be taped, which is the only way to do lifting. Live coverage just doesn't make sense, due to strategic changes, delays or changes in loading, need for commercial breaks, etc.