Summer Olympics 2000 Three-way tie decided by body weight

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Tuesday, September 19
Three-way tie decided by body weight
Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia -- Now this was close.

Maria Isabel Urrutia of Colombia won the Olympic gold medal in 165-pound weightlifting Wednesday by basis of lower body weight after all three medalists lifted the same weight.

It was the first gold medal in any sport for Colombia.

Urrutia, her eyes bulging as she hoisted nearly twice her body weight; silver medalist Ruth Ogbeifo of Nigeria; and bronze medalist Yi-Hang Kuo of Taiwan had identical totals of 540 pounds.

Urrutia got the gold because she weighed 161½ pounds to Ogbeifo's 163½ and Kuo's 164.

Colombia and Mexico, countries not previously associated with Olympic weightlifting, have come away from the inaugural women's competition with gold medals. Soraya Jimenez of Mexico won at 127¾ pounds.

With no Chinese lifters entered -- they own all three world records at 165 -- the top-to-bottom competition for medals was expected to be tighter than in any other class. And it was.

Six of the 11 lifters were within 11 pounds of each other following the snatch, which Tatiana Khromova of Kazakstan and Urrutia led with lifts of 242½ pounds. Khromova missed all three lifts in the clean and jerk and did not place.

Kuo was at 236¾ pounds and fourth-place finisher Kim Soon-hee of South Korea, Gyongyi Likerecz of Hungary and Ogbeifo were at 231pounds.

Urrutia lifted 292 pounds on her first attempt in the clean and jerk and 297½ on her second, but missed at 303 pounds. Ogbeifo made up her deficit following the snatch by putting up 308½ pounds, the most of any lifter in the clean and jerk. But she missed winning the gold when she couldn't raise 314 pounds.

Kuo also had a chance to win, but couldn't make her final lift of 308½ pounds.

No country can enter more than four lifters in the seven classes, and this was one of the three classes China sat out. Sun Tianni of China is the world's top-ranked lifter at the weight.

Cara Heads-Lane of Costa Mesa., Calif., cheered on by U.S. super heavyweight medal hopeful Cheryl Haworth, finished seventh after lifting 225½ pounds in the snatch and 264½ pounds in the clean and jerk for a total of 490½ pounds.

Despite Haworth's pleas of, "Let's go right here, this is all you got, let's see it," Heads-Lane couldn't make her final lift at 275½ pounds.

Heads-Lane was the third of the four U.S. women who will lift in Sydney. Tara Nott got the silver and Robin Goad failed to medal at 106 pounds, and the 17-year-old Haworth goes Friday in the 165 pounds-plus class.

Haworth most likely has a chance at the bronze, because Ding Meiyuan of China and Anita Wrobel of Poland both have lifted about 65 pounds more than she has this year.

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