Weightlifter rues 'fatal' Games miss

Triple world champion Marcin Dolega blows his best chance for gold, crashes out without registering single lift

I / London August 07, 2012, 11:16 IST

Triple world champion Marcin Dolega said he had blown his best chance for Olympic gold as he crashed out without registering a single lift -- four years after narrowly missing the medals in Beijing.

After the reigning 105kg Olympic champion Alexei Aramnau of Belarus and the top two at last year's world championships, Russians Khazhimurat Akkaev and Dmitriy Klokov, pulled out of the competition, Dolega was the favourite.

But on the snatch the Pole failed to lift 190kg three times, and went out without even getting to the clean and jerk.

When winning the second of his world titles in 2009, he snatched 195kg, a weight he regularly lifts in training. But he was at a loss to explain what went wrong on Sunday.

"What can I say after such a fatal performance? The 190kg should have been a good lift for me," he said yesterday. "If I were to wake up in the middle of the night I would have no problems with that weight."

It was the second time he has let slip a chance of an Olympic medal.

In Beijing four years ago he missed out on bronze by bodyweight because he was just 70g heavier than Russian Dmitriy Lapikov.

On that occasion he opened with 225kg in the clean and jerk before failing twice with 228kg. Lapikov had lifted 222kg on his first attempt before also managing 226kg and 230kg.