The Advertiser, Australia
March 22, 2006 Wednesday
State Edition
The Games 350kg But gold-winning Alexsan wanted more;
He’s not heavy – he’s my son
by MICHAEL HORAN
Weightlifting
AN angry Alexsan Karapetyan crushed his opposition to win Australia
weighlifting gold in the men’s 94kg class yesterday.
Karapetyan was in a class of his own as he lifted a total of 350kg to
defend the Commonwealth Games title he won at Manchester four years
ago.
And Melbourne local hero Simon Heffernan, 31, made it a home-town
quinella when he farewelled inter national competition in theatrical
style to win the silver medal. Scotland’s Thomas Yule took the
bronze.
Karapetyan didn’t appear until every other competitor had made all
three lifts in the snatch section and with his first attempt he
raised 155kg put a five-kilogram space between himself and the field.
The ante was upped by 10kg for the next lift and Karapetyan clearly
wanted more in order to bid to break his own Commonwealth Games
record of 167kg, but coach Luke Borregine argued against it.
The crowd watched a testy exchange between the pair on the two big
screens before a simmering Karapetyan returned to the platform. He
easily lifted the 165kg and then appeared to throw the barbell down
in open disgust.
”I wanted to lift 170kg, I wanted to post a new record. I was a bit
angry, but it is okay. I have forgotten already,” an exuberant
Karapetyan said later.
Karapetyan accepted his gold medal draped in an Australian flag and
holding his two-year-old son Garik in his arms.
”When I came to compete my son said ‘father, I need gold – nothing
else’,” Karapetyan said.
The 35-year-old vowed he would be in New Delhi in four years’ time in
a bid to make it three in a row.
Karapetyan, who competed for Armenia at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and
then for Australia in Sydney 2000, cemented the gold medal with his
first lift in the clean and jerk, 185kg before missing twice at
190kg.
Heffernan, who missed Manchester four years ago due to a hernia
operation, wowed the crowd with extroverted behaviour after each
successful lift in the snatch.
He gave the Brett Lee ”chainsaw” after lift one, a windmill and a
Lleyton Hewitt gesture second time around and even threw in a pelvic
thrust much to the delight of the packed house.
Later he vritually conceded it was time to quit.
”I think I’m done. It’s a good time to just finish on a good note,”
Heffernan, a schoolteacher who is due back at work on Monday, said.
Australia’s Deborah Lovely won a gold medal after a tight battle in
the women’s 75kg weightlifting event at the Commonwealth Games in
Melbourne last night.
Lovely was equal with Nauru’s Sheba Deireragea after the snatch, but
outlifted her by 6kg in the clean and jerk to take the title.
Deireragea won silver, with South Africa’s Babalwa Ndleleni taking
bronze.
Lovely won a silver medal in the same event at the Manchester Games
in 2002.
The woman who won gold on that occasion, India’s Pujari Shailaja, had
been the favourite to defend her title here until she was
disqualified from competing after recently testing positive to a
banned drug.
Men’s 94kg
G Aleksan Karapetyan (AUS) 165 185 35
S Simon Heffernan (AUS) 150 178 332
B Thomas Yule (SCO) 151 175 326
Women’s 75kg
G Deborah Lovely (AUS)
S Sheba Deireragea (NAU)
B Babalwa Ndleneni (RSA)