Greek becomes 3rd in history to win 3 golds

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Sydney: Greece's Akakios Kakiasvilis became only the third weightlifter in history to take three Olympic gold medals when he won a tactical battle in the men's 94-kg contest on Sunday.

Kakiasvilis emulated the feat of his compatriot Pyrros Dimas, who won the 85-kg category in front of around 1,000 flag-waving Greek fans on Saturday night to add to his titles from Barcelona and Atlanta.

''Pocket Hercules'' Naim Suleymanoglu is the only other lifter to have won three Olympic gold medals. The Turk triumphed in Seoul, Barcelona and Atlanta, but failed in his bid to win an unprecedented fourth title in Sydney.

Polish teenager Szymon Kolecki took Silver in Sunday's battle of minds and Russia's defending champion Alexei Petrov claimed bronze.

Kakiasvilis, who was born in Georgia, but moved to Greece after his first success in Barcelona in 1992, lay second at the halfway stage of the contest behind Iranian snatch specialist Kouroush Bagheri.

The Greek lifted 220 kgs with his first effort at the clean-and-jerk, but watched as European champion Kolecki lifted 222.5 kgs to leave both lifters level on a total of 405 kgs with two lifts to go.

However, the Greek realised he was in the gold medal position because his bodyweight was lower than Kolecki's. When two lifters finish a contest with the same total the lighter athlete wins.

Greek's bluff wins him the day

Kakiasvilis then played weightlifting's equivalent of call-my-bluff with his less experienced rival, asking for more weight to be piled on the bar only to decline at the last moment to put the ball back in the Pole's court.

Kolecki finally took up the challenge with the bar loaded to 227.5 kgs but failed the lift and appeared to injure his ankle. Perhaps realising the task was beyond him, he declined his final lift leaving Kakiasvilis as champion on a relatively modest total of 405 kgs.

The Greek had the luxury of declining his final two lifts. Petrov totalled 402.5 kgs, the same score as the slightly heavier Bagheri, who finished fourth.

''Up until now there haven't been many weightlifters who have achieved this (three gold medals),'' said Kakiasvilis, who has also won three World and four European overall titles. ''There is only Suleymanoglu and Pyrros last night.''

Both Greeks will seek to succeed where Suleymanoglu failed and win a fourth gold medal in what promises to be a highly-charged weightlifting programme in Athens.

''Since I have reached this point and have climbed such a high mountain, I will continue to Athens in 2004,'' the 31-year-old Kakiasvilis confirmed.

Kolecki, the man who would have been best placed to dethrone the Greek in four years time, said he planned to move up a weight class to join the heavyweights. ''I wish Akakios luck,'' he said.



(c) Reuters Limited.