Nauru and Marcus aim to impress

28/08/1998

SIZE doesn't matter.
Nauru, a tiny Pacific island, have shown that when it comes to winning
gold medals.
They were accepted as a late entry for the 1990 Auckland Games following
the intense lobbying of Sunshine Stephen and 40 others.
Nevermind that Sunshine's then 19-year-old son Marcus, a weightlifter,
was the only competitor. The young Marcus did not disappoint the island
nation taking home a gold and two silvers.
At the 1994 Victoria Games he did better, winning three gold medals. His
golds came in the bantamweight (52kg to 56kg) catetory.
His lift in the clean and jerk was 147.5, the snatch was 115kg and the
combined total was 262.5kg.
At the Kuala Lumpur Games, Marcus will be competing in the 62kg category
where he will have Kamaruzaman Jusan for company.
On the entry list sent to Sukom, Marcus stated his combined total as
310kg and looks set to dominate his category.
Marcus will be competing in the 62kg category where he will have
Malaysian Kamaruzaman Jusan for company.
Malaysia have a proud weghtlifting record, the sport giving us our first
Commonwealth gold in 1950.
It was just a year after the Thomas Cup triumph, and the four-man
weightlifting team made a name for themselves at the then British Empire
Games (later renamed the Commonwealth Games) in Auckland, New Zealand.
Featherweight Koh Eng Tong lifted the first gold and Tho Fook Hong
followed with the bantamweight gold.
Thong Saw Pak (lightweight) and Tan Kim Wee (lightheavy) added a silver
and bronze respectively.
Koh competed in the 1956 Olympics where he came in sixth - a
disappointment but no disgrace to Malaysia.
Then came Matin Guntali, who won a silver medal in the 1994 Commonwealth
Games in Victoria, and weightlifting was back in the news.
A lot has been put into the sport and now the Malaysian Weightlifting
Federation predict a three-medal haul next month. The medals are expected
to come from Abdul Rahman (56kg), Matin (56kg) and Hidayat Hamidon (69kg).
Hidayat looks good for gold, and even Nauru, who have produced capable
lifters since, have not named any lifter in that category.
The challenge is expected to come from India's Sandip Kumar and G.
Vadivelu.
Vadivelu lifted a total of 272.5kg at the Commonwealth Championships in
Nauru for the silver while Hidayat beat him to the gold.
At the national championship, Hidayat increased his total to 282.5,
which is exactly the combined weight that Vadivelu has stated on his Games
entry list.
While Malaysia, India and Nauru battle for a modest share in the lower
weight categories, the Australian lifters look set to take the lion's
share in the heavy categories.
At the Victoria Games, Australia won 14 gold and 11 silver medals in
weightlifting.
They have retained multi-gold medal winner Kiril Kounev for the Games.
Kounev won three gold medals in the lightheavy (75-82.5kg) category at
Victoria and he will be competing in the 94kg in Kuala Lumpur.
However, Stefan Botev, has been left out because of injury.
(END)