Chanu finishes sixth on higher bodyweight

Sydney: Within minutes of the competition beginning, it was clear that India's Sanamacha Chanu was at best fighting for a bronze medal. And even there the battle was a close one and no less than four lifters were in contention.

And Chanu finished right at end, finally coming in sixth, but that on accountof her heavier bodyweight after three lifters tied for the fourth place with totals of 195.0 kg each.

Meanwhile Yang Xia of China, who came down from the 58-kg category to 53-kg for the Olympics simply dominated the competition. For more than a week now, Chanu's name has been bandied around as a possible medal prospect and the venerated 'Sports Illustrated's' prediction of giving her the bronze had raised Indian hopes.

Most of these predictions had come on the strength of Chanu's gold medal winning performance at the Asian Championships in Osaka, where she totalled 197.5 kg. But here for the Olympics, Yang Xia, the silver medallist in 58-kg category in the 1999 World Championships in Athens, came down to the 53-kg category - she barely made the section at 52.46 kg.

Li Feng Ying, who competed for China in the 1994 World Championships in Istanbul in 1994 and came third, has in the time since shifted to ChineseTaipei. Here in Sydney, she had made it clear that the Chinese were still the favourites and so it proved.

China did not send Wang Huifen, who has been shown as number one in the world list. Clearly such is the depth that Chinese can afford to send someone not even mentioned in the list and still walk out with the gold and world records.

Coming back to Monday's event, while Yang and Feng Ying were engaged in their own battle, at least in the snatch section, four others were fighting for the bronze.

The difference came in the third lift in snatch, where Winarni Slamet managed 90.0 kg, while the other three Chanu, Swe Swe and Gbodo stopped at 85.0 at the end of their three lifts in the section.

All four went through identical first and second lifts in clean and jerk. They all asked for and cleared 105 kgs and then 110 kgs. So with one lift to go, Slamet was still ahead by a clear advantage of 5 kgs.

In the last attempt, Slamet sealed the advantage with 112.5 kgs, at the end of which the other three had to try 117.5 kg to make up the deficit and dislodge Slamet from the third position.

In the event of equal totals, Slamet would have lost out, as Gbodo was thelightest at 52.00 kgs, while Swe Swe weighed 52.08 kgs, Chanu 52.16 kgs and Winarni 52.44 kgs.

But it did not come down to that for the bronze, though it did while deciding the fourth to sixth places. Gbodo was fourth, Swe Swe fifth and Chanu sixth.

And there ended the great Indian medal hope, though national selector and former national champion, Balbir Bhatia said even Karnam Malleswari had an outside chance.

India Abroad News Service