Olympics: Record-breaking Aramnau wins first Belarus gold

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

BEIJING - Andrei Aramnau broke three weightlifting world records to help Belarus win their first Beijing Olympics gold medal on Monday.

The squat, 20-year-old world champion reset all records in the 105kg weight class with a snatch lift of 200kg, a clean and jerk effort of 236kg, and a total lift of 436kg.

Former world champion Dmitry Klokov of Russia won the silver medal with a total effort of 423kg.

A second Russian, Dmitry Lapikov, edged out Marcin Dolega of Poland for the bronze with an equal total of 420kg but with a lighter body weight than the Pole.

Aramnau set an Olympic record with his second snatch attempt of 197kg, erasing Dmitry Berestov of Russia's Athens Olympics standard of 195kg.

The Belarussian then demolished Dolega's two year-old world record of 199kg with a final 200kg heave.

In the clean and jerk, the Belarussian equalled the eight year-old world record total of 430kg held by Denis Gotfrid of Ukraine with a second heave of 230kg.

Aramnau's final lift of 236kg reset both Gotfrid's eight year-old clean and jerk effort of 235kg as well Gotfrid's all-time high total by a huge six kilogrammes.