Weightlifting: They had 'em swinging in the aisles

By DAVID LEGGAT

Each sport has its own very specific drama, but nothing compares with weightlifting.

Its appeal lies in the way the audience are drawn into the competitor's personal battle with the bar.

Take the men's 85kg division yesterday, which featured New Zealand lifter Grant Cavit.

The disparity between the weights that lifters began their programme at was huge.

Ray Ikitoemata, of Niue Island, kicked off his three lifts in the snatch at 70kg. Muscle-bound David Matam Matam, of Cameroon, strolled in at 150kg.

The crowd, buoyed by a repetitive, bouncy music backdrop, dropped to absolute silence as the lifters crouched over the bar. The tick-tock of the clock counting the minute allowed for each lift was audible throughout the theatre.

Sure, there was a special roar for the English lifters, but no one could accuse weightlifting crowds of playing favourites. They relish the spectacle.

Take England's Stephen Ward, who obviously fancied his chances, but blew out like a puncture on the motorway in both the snatch and the clean and jerk.

The shaven-headed Ward stalked the bar. Back and forth he prowled, glaring, nodding, muttering at it.

Finally, a grunt of "yes" as he approached the bar with a ferocious intensity which suggested he was about to punch it. Five times out of six attempts the bar said "no."

Cavit, a doctor, managed 130kg in the snatch and 170kg in the clean and jerk for sixth place overall.

The thing about weightlifting is how often the real drama can come at the death. So it was yesterday.

Matam Matam, the snatch gold medal already secure with 155kg, came into the clean and jerk with a saunter which suggested it would be child's play to nail all three golds.

But he fluffed his first two attempts at 185kg. His little coach at the side of the stage - Burgess Meredith to Stallone's Rocky - was furious.

Palms were upturned, fingers were jabbing. Some serious grief was coming Matam Matam's way and the gold was heading Englishman Anthony Arthur's way.

But cometh the big moment, cometh the big Cameroonian. Up went the bar and the smile broadened a moment before the referees' lights went on. He knew he had three gold medals.

He sank to his knees, then danced as he hugged the coach, while his supporters jigged in the aisles. The crowd roared their appreciation.

The roar tomorrow could well be a prelude to God Defend New Zealand when Olivia Baker and Nigel Avery take to the stage with medals very much in mind.

Both are fancied to grab gold.

Baker, and Keisha-Dean Soffe, are in the over-75kg class, Avery in the 105kg and over division.

In an age where coaches tend to play down their charges' prospects, New Zealand team coach Gary Marshall is an exception when it comes to Wellingtonian Baker.

"Olivia will set the standard. There will be three girls who will be very close together," Marshall said, the others being Canadian Susanne Dandenault and Australian Caroline Pileggi, the only lifter in the Commonwealth ranked ahead of Baker.

As for Baker, she is feeling good, training hard, and admits to some nervousness.

"I'm the strongest I've been, but there are nerves. I'm not setting a target weight to reach. I'll just go and do my best."

Full coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/manchester2002

Medal table

Commonwealth Games info and related links