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March 17, 2006 Friday 8:54 PM AEST

Wght: Sarkisian retires after missing medal

by Sam Lienert

MELBOURNE March 17

Decorated Australian weightlifting veteran Yourik Sarkisian retired
from the sport in disappointment today, after failing to win a medal
at the Commonwealth Games.

Immediately after failing in his final attempt of the competition,
the 44-year-old removed his shoes and held them up to the crowd,
signalling the end to his illustrious career The Armenian immigrant
won a silver medal for the Soviet Union at the Moscow Olympics in
1980 and broke numerous world records during his years in the sport.

However, after the competition today finished he suggested that the
retirement might not be permanent.

“Today I am stopped, next year I don’t know,” Sarkisian said.

Sri Lankan Chinthana Vidanage won the gold medal, with a total weight
of 271kg.

India’s Arun Murugesan, the pre-event favourite, lifted the same
weight, but Vidanage won out because of his lighter bodyweight.

Malaysia’s Roswadi Bin Abdul Rashid took the bronze medal with a
261kg total.

Sarkisian finished in eighth position with 255kg.

He said he felt before the competition he had the ability to win gold,
but had faltered under pressure in front of his home crowd.

“Too much pressure, I never feel this pressure before,” he said.

“I feel nervous, that never happened before too.”

It could almost have been much worse, after he failed in his first
two attempts at the snatch, with 113kg on the bar, before making the
lift with his third attempt.

That put him in equal fifth place affter the snatch, 8kg behind
leader Murugesan.

It meant he had to do something special in the clean and jerk to win
a medal.

After lifting 142kg with his first attempt, he moved up to 149kg,
which would have been enough for the bronze medal.

However, on both of his attempts at that weight, he could not even
complete the “clean” part of the lift.

After his final failure, he went and thumped the back wall with his
hand, raised his palms upwards with a look of resignation, before
removing his shoes and holding them to the cheering crowd.

That preluded an exciting conclusion to the gold medal battle.

With the final lift of the competition, Vidanage had to lift 153kg,
after failing in his previous attempt at 150kg, when the jury
overturned an earlier majority decision of the judges, who had awarded
him the lift.

It made it all the sweeter for him when he then hoisted the 153kg
weight, giving him the gold medal, Sri Lanka’s first medal of the
weightlifting in these Games.