Australian Associated Press Pty. Ltd.
AAP Newsfeed
March 17, 2006 Friday 8:54 PM AEST
Wght: Sarkisian bows out on sad note
by Sam Lienert
MELBOURNE March 17
Australian weightlifter Yourik Sarkisian’s long, illustrious career
came to a sad end at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne today.
The 44-year-old retired from the sport in disappointment immediately
after failing to win a medal in the 62kg division.
After failing in his final attempt of the competition, he removed
his shoes and held them up to his hometown crowd, the traditional
weightlifting gesture of retirement.
However, he later suggested the retirement might not be permanent.
“Today I am stopped, next year I don’t know,” Sarkisian said.
Sri Lankan Chinthana Vidanage won the gold medal, with a total weight
of 271kg.
India’s Arun Murugesan, the pre-event favourite, lifted the same
weight, but Vidanage won because of his lighter bodyweight.
Malaysia’s Roswadi Bin Abdul Rashid took the bronze medal with a
261kg total.
Sarkisian finished in eighth position with 255kg.
He said he felt he had been capable of winning gold, but had faltered
under pressure before his home crowd.
“Too much pressure, I never feel this pressure before,” he said.
“I feel nervous, that never happened before too.”
It could have been worse, he failed in his first two attempts at
the snatch, with 113kg on the bar, before making the lift with his
third attempt.
That put him in equal fifth place after the snatch, 8kg behind leader
Murugesan.
It meant he had to do something special in the clean and jerk to win
a medal.
After lifting 142kg with his first attempt, he moved up to 149kg,
which would have been enough for the bronze medal.
However, on both of his attempts at that weight, he could not even
complete the “clean” part of the lift.
After his final failure, he thumped the back wall with his hand,
raised his palms upwards with a look of resignation, before removing
his shoes and holding them to the cheering crowd.
Sarkisian, a native of Armenia who migrated to Australia in 1994,
won five world championship gold medals during his long career, broke
23 world records and won an Olympic silver medal for the Soviet Union
in 1980.
He also won three Commonwealth Games gold medals, in Manchester in
2002, and three silvers, in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.
Australian Weightlifting Federation president Sam Coffa said it was a
shame Sarkisian’s career did not end with a medal, after his amazing
contribution to the sport.
“He’s been a great competitor throughout the world, he’s possibly
one of the most decorated athletes our sport has ever seen,” he said.