Weightlifting: Avery is 'ecstatic, mate'

By PETER CALDER

He may have felt like a minnow swimming among sharks, but New Zealand super heavyweight weightlifter Nigel Avery hoisted three New Zealand records above his shoulders in Sydney on Tuesday as he finished eighth in the 14-strong Group B.

The double bronze medallist in the 1998 Commonwealth Games was delighted with a flawless series of confident lifts, which had him snatch 172.5kg and clean and jerk 210kg, for a total of 382.5kg.

Only three of the lifters are lighter than the 122kg Avery. This is the sport of the very big men and some of the group B stars, like 140kg Hungarian Tibor Stark and 163kg American Shane Hamman, snatched 195kg - just under the 200kg Avery chose as his starting weight for the clean and jerk.

But the 33-year-old, 188cm Avery was unfazed by the competition, standing quietly and staring at the bar from the back of the stage before marching up to each of his six lifts and hoisting them with apparent ease.

"Ecstatic, mate," was the reaction to his performance. "Three personal bests and six out of six is the ultimate for a lifter."

The Browns Bay-based lifter broke his own New Zealand records for snatch and total (170kg and 370kg respectively) and the 207.5kg clean and jerk record held by Kuala Lumpur team-mate Darren Liddell.

He had another team-mate in mind yesterday - sprinter Chris Donaldson, who was forced by injury to withdraw from the 100m and 200m.

"He was pretty upset about not being able to compete," said Avery, a former sprinter and triple jumper and a self-confessed track nut, "so that one was for him."

Avery's apparent comfort raised the possibility that he might have been able to go even higher, but he was happy with the choices he made.

"I got really nervous before Kuala Lumpur and I thought maybe I used too much energy up.

"I was enjoying myself today and that's why I gave [the records] a pretty good nudge.

"But my first goal was to get a total. The second goal was to get PBs [personal bests] and the third was the place. As soon as you miss one [lift] you've got no chance of going better, and it's just a waste of time."

The lifter is fighting trim. He had none of the wobbly protuberances favoured by most of the super heavyweight weightlifters, prompting a question about whether the All Blacks should give him a call.

"Oh, mate, I can't even run a bath at the moment," he said, "let alone run around for 80 minutes.

"It all depends on how much they want to pay me, I suppose."