The "Good Luck" Beijing 2008 International Weightlifting Invitational Tournament ended with German Matthias Steiner's overwhelming victory in the men's +105kg category weightlifting event held on Wednesday evening.
China snatched two gold medals in women's 53kg and +75kg categories, and a Vietnamese lifter was crowned in the men's 56kg category competition over the two-day tournament.
As the last competition held on Jan. 23, the men's +105kg category event attracted seven "Hercules"from China, Japan, the United States, Germany, and Poland to practice their skills ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games. In accordance with the Olympic weightlifting regulations, lifters' best weights in the snatch and clean & jerk groups were calculated as their final records.
Matthias Steiner from Germany finished with the highest two-lift total score of 423kg, followed by Polish lifter Grzegorz Kleszcz at 395kg. Chinese Gao Le gained a bronze medal for his country with a total score of 391kg.
Gao Le made the first attempt on 150kg and finished at 171kg in the snatch group. German Matthias Steiner succeeded in lifting 185kg for his first attempt and achieved 190kg in his second attempt. Chinese Sun Haibo challenged the 190kg in his second attempt but failed to drop the bar onto his back. Sun quit his final attempt and ended with a score of 180kg, but still ranked second in snatch group. German lifter Matthias Steiner topped the group with his best score of 193kg.
Currently the world record for the men's +105kg snatch category is held by Iranian weightlifter Hossein Rezazadeh (213kg).
In the clean & jerk group, Sun Haibo from China struggled to challenge 211kg in his first attempt and let in to an injury. He soon quit the competition. The first dramatic change happened to Germany's Matthias Steiner when his first attempt of 225kg was evaluated invalid by the jury board. The powerful German finally topped the clean & jerk group by successfully lifting 230kg in his last attempt.
As the pre-Olympic competition with four categories of weightlifting events held in the Olympic weightlifting venue -- Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) Gymnasium -- the Tournament was ratified as a successful rehearsal to the forthcoming Olympic Games in August.
(BOCOG January 23, 2008)