http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics_2...ing/3584746.stmThongsuk wins lifting gold
Thailand's Pawina Thongsuk overcame the strong challenge of Russia's Natalia Zabolotnaia to win the women's 75kg weightlifting competition.
Both athletes finished with a world record-equalling total of 272.5kg but Thongsuk took gold because she weighed less than Zabolotnaia.
The Russian set a new world record of 125kg in the snatch, beating Thongsuk's mark of 122.5kg set moments earlier.
Zabolotnaia's compatriot Valentina Popova took bronze with 265 kg.
It was Thailand's second Olympic weightlifting gold after Thongsuk's compatriot Udomporn Polsak won the 53kg category.
World Sports - AFP
Pawina puts Olympic-sized smile on face of Thailand
ATHENS (AFP) - Pawina Thongsuk, from Thailand the 'Land of Smiles', beamed with joy when she ensured her country of their best Olympic medal haul ever by winning women's weightlifting gold.
She edged out Natalia Zabolotnaia of Russia on lower body weight in the 75kg category, the Thai being more than four kilograms lighter.
The Russian went away with two new world records but only a silver medal after what looked like a bizarre misjudgement.
The contrast between the two could not have been starker on the podium, Pawina smiling and waving to a jubilant, flag-waving cheer squad and Zabolotnaia solemn and stony-faced.
Pawina and Zabolotnaia both totalled 272.5k with Valentina Popova of Russia in bronze medal position on 265kg. Zabolotnaia was credited with the world record in the total, to go with her new world mark in the snatch, as she reached 272.5kg ahead of Pawina.
Thailand had already won a gold, through Udomporn Polsak, and two bronzes in women's weightlifting and Pawina's victory took their total past the previous record of one gold and two bronzes the country established over all sports at the 2000 Sydney Games.
"I was under pressure as the other three girls in the team had won medals," said Pawina, a former world champion at 69kg. "I was not scared of Liu Chunhong (the Chinese who dominates the 69kg category) - I just moved up to 75kg as I thought I had a chance of winning the gold medal."
The Thai women lifters visited temples and monks in predominantly Buddhist Thailand to pray for good luck before coming to Athens and were energized by a diet of bird's nest soup and chocolate.
The result hinged on a decision by Zabolotnaia to leap from 147.5kg to 152.5kg for her final lift in the clean and jerk when 150kg would have put Pawina under pressure.
Pawina had already lifted 150kg and when the Russian girl missed at 152.5kg the gold belonged to the Thai.
"I had an objective and I am disappointed I did not achieve it," said the 19-year-old Zabolotnaia, the 2003 European champion. "The result was not what I wanted."
In a dramatic snatch section, the world record was broken three times by three different lifters.
When the dust settled, Zabolotnaia was the new world record holder with a lift of 125kg.
Her tremendous effort broke the old record of 122.5kg set by Pawina only a few minutes earlier. Pawina's lift had bettered that of 120.5kg recorded by Popova at the start of the record-setting burst.
The big surprise was the failure of world champion Nahla Ramadan, bidding to become Egypt's first ever female Olympic gold medallist, to keep with the pacesetters. She missed on 122.5kg after a good lift of 120kg.
The 19-year-old Egyptian prodigy's confidence was destroyed and she failed to make a lift in the clean and jerk and was unranked.
Sports - AP
Thongsuk Wins Thailand's Second Gold
By ALAN ROBINSON, AP Sports Writer
ATHENS, Greece - Natalia Zabolotnaia of Russia set the world records. Pawina Thongsuk of Thailand got what counted: the Olympic gold medal.
Thongsuk, 11 pounds lighter than most of the other competitors, shrugged off two world record-setting lifts by the 19-year-old Russian to come back and win the gold in 165-pound (75kg) weightlifting Friday.
The two tied with world-record total weights of 601 pounds (272.5kg), but all ties are broken on body weight and this wasn't close. Thongsuk could have dropped less than a pound and competed Thursday at 152 pounds (69kg), while Zabolotnaia weighed slightly less than the 163-pound weight limit.
"I was at 69 but I moved up to 75 because I hoped to have a chance to get the gold," Thongsuk said. "It was the correct decision by my coach and team manager."
Valentina Popova, also of Russia but nearly 13 years older than Zabolotnaia, took the bronze.
Thongsuk had never lifted above the 152-pound class, but Thai coaches didn't want her to have to go against Olympic 152-pound champion Liu Chunhong for a gold. Liu's total of 606 pounds (275kg) was 5 1/2 pounds more than Thongsuk lifted in the higher weight class, and Liu won Thursday without even having to take her final lift.
"I was not afraid of Liu," Thongsuk said. "But I had a chance to get the gold medal at 75."
A Thai woman had never won an Olympic gold medal until the Athens Games, but now the country known as the Land of Smiles is all smiles with two weightlifting golds in less than a week. Udomporn Polsak won Sunday at 117 pounds (53kg).
Thailand, a country that is smaller than Texas, now has three Olympic weightlifting medals, including a bronze; the United States has yet to have a weightlifter place even in the top 10.
Thongsuk came from behind to win in the clean and jerk after Zabolotnaia, trying to become the third 19-year-old gold medalist in as many Olympic weightlifting events, set a snatch world record of 275 1/2 pounds. Thongsuk had lifted 270 pounds minutes before.
Despite Zabolotnaia's record lift, Thongsuk took the lead by raising 319 1/2 pounds (145kg) in the clean and jerk. Zabolotnaia seized it right back by putting up 325 pounds (147.5kg), but
Thongsuk, a 2002 world champion, came right back by lifting 330 1/2 pounds (150kg).
That forced Zabolotnaia to take a strategic gamble that failed and may have cost her the gold.
Rather than matching Thongsuk's 330 1/2 pound lift, which could have given her the gold, she tried 336 pounds (152kg) — and missed. That meant Thongsuk was assured of the gold even if she missed her final attempt in the clean and jerk, and she did, failing at a world-record 336 1/2 pounds (153kg).
Had Zabolotnaia made the 330 1/2-pound lift, which she seemed capable of doing, Thongsuk would have been forced to lift 336 pounds (152.5kg) to win — just slightly less than the weight she didn't come close to raising.
Zabolotnaia tried some equestrian events, of all things, before becoming a weightlifter 5 1/2 years ago. She was in tears throughout the medal ceremony and press conference, no doubt realizing how close she came.
Thongsuk's gold backed up Thai amateur weightlifting chief Intarat Yodbangtoey's pre-Olympic prediction that his country would win more than one women's gold medal.
"Everybody is celebrating now in Thailand," he said. "Every TV in Thailand is on for this."
Thailand medal update:
Look at those arms!! Thai women in weightlifting, wow. Thats awesome 
he's like the coolest asian tennis player and he lost... oh well..
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