The Hindu : Sport / Olympic Games : Milen Dobrev lives up to his billing

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 25, 2004

Sport

Sport - Olympic Games

Milen Dobrev lives up to his billing

ATHENS, AUG.25 The Greek faithful came to see if their 35-year-old star of Olympics past could give them one last thrill. They left having witnessed the new breed of weightlifting.

Bulgaria's — a sleek 24-year-old with a freshly shaved head, wide eyebrows and thick neck — lived up to his top seeding and took the gold medal in the 94-kilogram division of the Olympic tournament on Monday night.

Dobrev, the reigning world champion, made clean lifts on each of his first five tries. He failed on his sixth and final attempt, but just laughed and kissed the weights, knowing his total of 407.5 kg already had clinched first place.

Junior world champion Khadjimourad Akkaev, a 19-year-old from Russia, took silver with a total of 405 kg. Fellow Russian Eduard Tjukin got the bronze.

Missing from the medal stand was three-time Olympic champion Kakhi Kakiasvilis, a Russia native who became a Greek citizen in 1994 after discovering that his mother and grandmother were from Greece.

Kakiasvilis didn't even finish with a legal total. After failing on his first lift, he loaded extra weights on the bar to try catching up quickly. The plan backfired as he was successful only once.

A sellout crowd of 5,000 fans didn't care. They began chanting ``Ka-khi'' as soon as the medal ceremony ended, eventually luring him out for a quick wave from the platform.

They kept cheering until he went up again, even moving a little farther out, but he refused to approach the medal platform as they had hoped.

``This was the most important moment of my career but also the most bitter,'' Kakiasvilis said. ``It's the first time my legs didn't support me. This has made be more stubborn and I'm not giving up. I know I'm getting old but I'll try and see what happens.''

Kakiasvilis joined fellow Greek Pyrros Dimas and Naim Suleymanoglu, the Pocket Hercules from Turkey, as those who've won three straight golds and returned to try for a fourth. Dimas took bronze on Saturday, while Suleymanoglu never came close four years ago in Sydney. — AP

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