Rio 2016: Kazakhstan’s Rahimo wins men’s 77kg weightlifting gold
Rio de Janeiro, Aug 11 (IANS) Nijat Rahimo of Kazakhstan broke the world record to win the gold medal of the men’s 77kg weightlifting with a total of 379kg at the Rio Olympic Games here.
Defending champion Lyu Xiaojun of China broke the snatch world record as he lifted 177kg on Wednesday, reports Xinhua.
Rahimo hoisted 214kg, bettering the world record of the jerk by four kilos.
Lyu took the silver at 379kg due to the bodyweight disadvantage and Ibrahim Ramadan Ibrahim Abdelbaki of Egypt claimed the bronze at 361kg.
Rio Olympics: Kazakhstan’s Balandin wins 200m breaststroke gold
Rio de Janeiro, Aug 11 (IANS) Kazakhstan swimmer Dmitriy Balandin caused one of the biggest surprises of the Rio Olympics so far by winning the men’s 200m breaststroke gold medal.
Swimming in lane eight after qualifying last for the final, Balandin hit the wall in 2 minutes 07.46 seconds to beat Josh Prenot of the US by seven hundredths of a second at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium on Wednesday, reports Xinhua.
Russia’s Anton Chupkov was third, 0.24sec further back.
Japan’s Ippel Watanabe, who set an Olympic record of 2:07.22 in qualifying for the final, finished sixth.
Balandin, 21, won the 200m breaststroke gold medal at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon.
His victory was Kazakhstan’s second gold medal of the Games after weightlifter Nijat Rahimov’s triumph in the men’s 77kg clean and jerk.
Xiang lifts Olympic gold for China despite neck injury
Rio de Janeiro, Aug 11 (IANS) Weightlifter Xiang Yanmei of China shrugged off an unexpected neck injury to win the gold medal for China in the women’s 69kg category at the ongoing Rio Olympics here.
Xiang, winner at the world championships in 2013 and 2015, failed in her third attempt in the snatch competition on Wednesday when she put the 118kg barbell above her head but suddenly the barbell fell awkwardly on her head and down her neck and dropped to the floor, reports Xinhua.
“I saw little stars all of a sudden. I got hurt a little bit; I felt hurt when I knocked my head,” Xiang said.
Despite the thrill, the 24-year-old Xiang still took the lead and kept the momentum to jerk 145kg with a winning total of 261kg.
“But I didn’t think about it at all during the jerk, so it didn’t affect my performance in the jerk,” she said.
Zhazira Zhapparkul of Kazakhstan, who has stood below Xiang on the podium at the 2015 worlds, claimed the silver with a total of 259kg and the bronze went to Sara Ahmed of Egypt at 255kg.
“I didn’t perform well today, but luckily, I made good jerks and won the gold. Actually, my opponents are quite strong,” Xiang said.
“Now, I am going to prepare for the National Games next year, you know how fierce the domestic competitions are in China,” she added.
Ahmed, 18, junior world champion in 2015, admitted that being a gold medalist at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games was a huge encouragement for her. She came to Rio Games for a medal.
“The Youth Olympic Games are a bit smaller and the athletes are all the same age, but here all of them have great experience and I am young to them. Here it is not easy for me to compete with them,” Ahmed said.
“A medal means a new beginning, and we hope that any medals we win here would help re-establish Egypt as a successful weightlifting nation,” she added.
