Australia's Turner wins dramatic men's 69kg weightlifting gold

0 Comments | AFP, March, 2006

MELBOURNE (AFP) — Australia's Benjamin Turner won the men's 69kg weightlifting gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, snatching victory in dramatic style.

The 20-year-old had been in third place after the opening snatch behind Malaysia's Muhammad Hidayat and India's Sudhir Kumar Chitradurga.

He then lifted 166kg with his final clean-and-jerk which meant that Hidayet, the gold medal winner in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 and bronze medallist at the last Games in Manchester, needed only to match it to take victory.

But the 30-year-old veteran crumbled under the intense pressure of a packed stadium collapsing to the ground as he failed to pull off the lift and Turner took gold by one kilo.

His total of 294kg gave Australia its first gold in weightlifting of...