At the last World Cup, the Chinese team once again confirmed its leading role in weightlifting. The Asian team finished the championship in the Dominican Republic with seven gold medals. The Chinese have taken away almost half of the gold reserves of the championship, adding three more silver and one bronze medals to it.
The Russian team looked at the level of a year ago. And although our athletes held the second line in the team event - gold, six silver and three bronze medals - the quality of the medals could be higher.
Russia has completed the minimum task - it is among the top three teams of the championship that automatically receive Olympic licenses in all weight categories for the 2008 Olympic Games.
The secret of troubles
In fact, more chaotic and more alarming than the World Cup, the Russians have not yet had. Until the last moment, information about the positive doping tests of the four leaders of our team - Vladimir Smorchkov, Dmitry Voronin, Valentina Popova and Svetlana Podobedova was kept in absolute secret. Together with the well-known punctures of Dmitry Berestov and Yevgeny Pisarev, their presence actually meant the exclusion of the Russian Weightlifting Federation (FTAR) from the participants of not only the World Cup, but also the Olympic Games. In this situation, it remained only to rely on the former authority of the Russian school, without which the championship is not a championship, and the diplomatic qualities of the leaders of the FAR, who occupy high posts at the international level. That is why the meeting of the executive committee of the International Weightlifting Federation, which preceded the World Cup, had a fateful decision.
Several more federations awaited their fate, including the Iranian one, whose nine weightlifters were convicted of doping on the eve of the congress in Santo Domingo. For us, the verdict of officials with all its severity turned out to be like manna from heaven. In addition to public censure, the Russians will be fined 250 thousand dollars. However, for a federation that does not have a single sponsor, except for the state, this is an excessive amount. But there was no other way. Iranians have to contribute 400 thousand dollars to the international box office.
Gymnast on the platform
The name of the only world champion in our team is Oksana Slivenko. She is only 19 years old. Muscovite. One can only be surprised at what Slivenko did in the distant Dominican Republic. Firstly, the girl first participated in such a big and nervous tournament. Secondly, she had to fight not only with her teammates, where the competition is always off the charts, but also with the Chinese woman Liu Chunhun, who frightened others so much with her victories that she could afford to do anything, even try herself in a different weight category.
However, Oksana did not care about all these conversations. The nerves, as her friends say, the girl is stronger than the armor of the T-34.
She did not pay attention to the behavior of the Chinese rival, but strictly complied with the coaching requests. The girl calmly pulled 115, then 119 kg, and after her weighed the weight to 123 kg, which almost doubled her own weight! And Slivenko calmly restrained him. But wait: this is a new world record!
Landmark set by formidable Liu Chunhun crossed out! The Chinese, do you see this ?! The terrible dictator was defeated: Chunhun refused to continue the struggle. The announced version is an elbow injury. However, it doesn’t matter anymore, because Slivenko decided to take everything at once, including the world record in biathlon. To do this, she needed to push 153 kg, which she did more than once in training. But there was no strength anymore ... For the recent champion of Europe and the world among juniors this is the first title in the adult arena. What is surprising, Slivenko came to weightlifting from rhythmic gymnastics! “If there is a desire to train daily, the body eliminates heavy loads, and even a fragile girl can lift large weights over time without any consequences for the body,” Alexander Anosov explains the wonderful transformation of his pupil. So at the World Cup, the superiority of Slivenko over other rivals in the end amounted to more than 10 kg, including over another Russian Tatyana Matveeva, who became the second.
In general, the female Russian team unexpectedly surprised. Although there were no more “big” gold awards, the young age and results of the girls were encouraging. The team, assembled from the bench, proved to be the best. On her account half of our medal catch - six "big" awards. Beijing is waiting for you, girls ...
Black story
Seventy-five world championships had to pass in order for the historic event to happen. For the first time in the history of weightlifting, a black athlete received the champion title. Venselas Dabaye is a unique person. This 69-kilogram miniature weightlifter managed to get into history three times in Santo Domingo. Firstly, it’s already clear why, secondly, it turned out that his victory was the 500th in a row at the World Championships, and thirdly, also because it belongs to France, which has never been listed since 1922 on the upper steps of the pedestal. And in general, Dabaia is an extraordinary person.
A native of Cameroon, a 21-year-old athlete in 1996 took fifth place at the Olympics. And then he decided to drastically change his fate, becoming a citizen of France, which had not had much success in weightlifting for a long time. Last year in Qatar, he received a “big” bronze medal, and this time exchanged it for a gold one. Dabaia eventually took four kilograms more than his Chinese pursuer Tsiyon Shi - 322 (146 + 186) kg.
Delegate authority
Given that the main thing for Russians in Santo Domingo was the conquest of Olympic licenses, they can only be applauded, but, on the other hand, real Russian athletes do not act like that. The men's team generally dispensed with gold medals.
Probably the most memorable and even somewhat offensive was the bronze of Roman Konstantinov in the weight category up to 94 kg. He showed the result in the total biathlon of 392 kg (177 + 215), as well as two other athletes - Ilya Ilin from Kazakhstan and Simon Kolecki from Poland. However, weight entered the game, and it turned out that the Russian is heavier than his rivals, and therefore he had to be content with only third place.
Failed to formalize his return after disqualification, Vladislav Lukanin, in the category of up to 77 kg, he took only fourth place. Again, an experienced athlete failed nerves.
But the most offensive is that Dmitry Klokov resigned as the world champion in the 105 kg category. He lost to another Russian, Dmitry Lapikov, who became the second. In principle, Klokov is to blame himself, having failed twice in the clean and jerk with a weight of 227 kg. He says that at a crucial moment, “pancakes” began to play on the bar and moved his hand. This provoked an old shoulder injury. Klokov also hung it on these shoulders - alas! - only a bronze award.
Tatiana Milevskaya