Hidayat and Yeo break two national records

23/06/1998

MOHAMED Hidayat Hamidon and Edmund Yeo cracked two national records
between them at the pre-Commonwealth Games weightlifting championships at
the Mines Exhibition Hall yesterday.
Hidayat lifted 160kg in the clean and jerk to erase his national record
of 157.5kg, which was achieved at the Commonwealth championships in Nauru
in March. It was 0.5kg less than the Commonwealth record by India's G.
Vadivelu.
In the 85kg category, Yeo bettered his national snatch record of 135kg
with a lift of 137.5kg.
After the record, Yeo increased the weight to 140kg but it was too much
and he barely got off the platform when he had to release.
"The results have been very satisfactory considering that just a few
years back, we were behind by more than 10kg in most of the categories,"
said team manager Abu Hanapiah.
"Today (yesterday), Hidayat was let down by the shaky platform when he
attempted the national snatch record of 130kg, which he did in Nauru."
Abu attributes the progress to centralised training. "Since 1996, the
lifters have been training fulltime at the National Sports Council and
this has been a tremendous boost.
"Before this, they used to train separately in Malacca, Rompin and Sabah
and there was no co-ordination."
Russian coach Slava Lelikov, 50, who replaced the late Armenak
Nalbandian, who passed away in April, has groomed his ace student Hidayat
well.
"We were afraid that Nalbandian's replacement would not be able to carry
on with the programme, so we chose his student Slava, who has done a
tremendous job."
Nalbandian, described as a true professional who was able to identify
each weightlifter's strength and proper weight, was instrumental in
helping Hidayat reduce weight to compete in the 64kg category at the
Jakarta Sea Games.
Results - 69kg snatch: 1 Mohamed Hidayat 122.5kg, 2 Mohamed Rosdi 110, 3
Raefail Ibrahim 97.5; Clean and jerk: 1 Hidayat 160 (nat rec), 2 Rosdi
150, 3 Ibrahim 135; Total: 1 Hidayat 282.5, 2 Rosdi 260, 3 Ibrahim 232.5.
77kg snatch: 1 Roslimand Harun 120kg, 2 Azwandi Abullah 100, 3 Willy
Welky 95; clean and jerk: 1 Roslimand 145, 2 Azwandi 130, 3 Willy 125;
Total: 1 Roslimand 265, 2 Azwandi 230, 3 Willy 220.
85kg snatch: 1 Edmund Yeo 137.5 (nat rec), 2 Dwayne Salim 120, 3
Zulkifly Jusoh 100; clean and jerk: 1 Edmund 162.5, 2 Dwayne 135, 3
Zulkifly 125; Total: 1 Edmund 300, 2 Dwayne 255, 3 Zulkifly 255.
(END)