Weightlifting: If only, as Baker looks back on what could have been

By DAVID LEGGATT

Wellington weightlifter Olivia Baker, who walked away with one silver and two bronze medals from her competition yesterday, could have left Manchester with a golden clean sweep.

The 23-year-old came into the 75kg and over event below her best weight, admitted to a bout of nerves, and those factors, along with a case of "dead legs," combined to leave her short of her best.

The overall gold medal went to tearful Reanna Solomon, of Nauru, who also took the clean and jerk gold, while Caroline Pileggi, of Australia, won the snatch.

Baker's silver came in the snatch, where she lifted 100kg, but twice missed at 102.5kg, while she managed 125kg in the clean and jerk, and twice failed at 130kg. She set a Games record of 225kg, later eclipsed by Solomon.

The mathematics became straightforward.

Had she made two of those missed lifts - at marks she has accomplished before - she would have cleaned out all three gold medals.

Baker lifted 105kg and 130kg as personal bests in Sydney during the Olympics two years ago.

This competition boiled down to the last lift. Solomon, the biggest woman in the field, had made a dramatic entry for the penultimate lift.

From the time the bar is loaded, lifters have a minute to complete the lift.

The clock ticked down until it showed 7s left. Suddenly, Solomon rumbled on to the stage, got to the bar and lifted with 3s to spare. That scarcely ideal preparation led to a failed lift.

So Baker's position was simple. Match her best mark and glory was hers.

She could not do it. When she dropped she leaped in the air and stamped the ground.

"I thought this is the winning lift and I was trying to give it my all. It just didn't work out," she said.

Baker dropped a broad hint that after the senior world championships in Poland in November she might call it quits.

Ankle, knee and shoulder injuries have taken their toll and the Athens Olympics of 2004 don't even figure in her thoughts.

New Zealand coach Gary Marshall was bemused afterwards.

"The opportunities were there. I was surprised she weighed in as light as she did," he said of her 94kg, 3kg below her Sydney weight and 6kg lighter than when she left New Zealand.

He said she had lifted both required weights in training.

Marshall offered the lament of all sports coaches: "We really were hoping for more today. But sport is sport."

Keisha-Dean Soffe, the 19-year-old Wellington student, did well to finish fifth overall with a total of 215kg.

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