Weightlifting: Showman's touch from a champ

By DAVID LEGGATT at the Games

Nigel Avery was determined to leave Manchester in a manner befitting a champion.

So after clinching the gold medals in the clean and jerk and the overall 105kg and over class yesterday, he thought briefly about raising the bar for a final lift for the crowd.

Then he emerged from the side of the stage, gave a brief wave and disappeared.

"I wanted to go out on a high note," the 34-year-old Auckland accountant said.

Fair enough, too. Avery's total of 390kg erased 1998 triple gold medallist Darren Liddel, of Auckland, from the Games record book.

He achieved both golds with some ease.

After finishing second in the snatch with 175kg, five points behind England's Giles Greenwood, Avery lifted 207.5kg on his first crack at the clean and jerk - where the lifters pause to gather themselves before hoisting the bar above their head - to take the lead.

When he raised 215kg with his next lift the gold was his.

The former Olympic bobsledder and national triple-jump champion held his pose with a showman's touch a couple of seconds longer than he needed, and flashed a broad smile before dropping the bar.

He bent down and kissed the weights before saluting his supporters.

A few hours earlier, Avery admitted his nerves were jangling, after spending the evening watching Greg Henderson and Sarah Ulmer's gold medal-winning rides at the velodrome.

Back at the athletes' village, sleep did not come easily. He whiled away the night poring over mathematical puzzles.

"I tortured my brain with them, and I had three books on the go as well."

After his event was completed at the Manchester International Convention Centre, the only unsolved puzzle was how he had missed out on the full set.

With his wife, Shelley, who almost qualified for the women's triple-jump at the Games, and a cluster of vocal New Zealand supporters in the audience, Avery was a cut above his rivals.

He made no bones about the emotion the occasion produced.

"I didn't really want to think about winning a medal, or a gold medal, or listening to the national anthem.

"Now I've had the chance and it's a pretty awesome feeling.

"Those moments only come round every two or four years and not many of us get to stand on the dais. I'm pretty emotional, pretty proud."

The clean and jerk gold was nice, he said, but pointed out the raison d'etre for a competitive weightlifter was the overall title. "You're rated on your total. It's all about getting a total position. That's really the one you're aiming for."

Avery's approach to the bar is conventional by his sport's standards. He simply stared hard at the bar for several seconds, stepped forward, bent down and lifted.

By contrast, Greenwood would have made a decent schoolteacher - "shhhh" he repeated loudly several times in the half-minute before he lifted.

Australian Chris Rae, whose hopes were ruined by an injury he picked up in the snatch - by the end he looked ready for the knackers yard - had his own special routine, part of which involved squatting in a particularly curious fashion.

Avery was not committing himself to any firm plans beyond the next few weeks. The Athens Olympics are a long two years away.

He will spend several days playing Tommy Tourist in London, travelling to northern Italy and visiting his old German coach Gunter Renner for his 25th wedding anniversary.

And for future sporting endeavours for the man of many sporting talents?

"I'll let you know."

* Christchurch student Terry Hughes benefited from a drug bust, being promoted to two bronze medals in the 62kg division when Indian silver medallist Krishnan Madasamy tested positive to the steroid nandrolone.

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