The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 142

smh.com.au Tuesday, September 19, 2000 9 GAMES Pekli toughs it out to end 36 years of waiting for a medal JUDO and 1996 Olympics. Pekli's chance at a gold medal was ended earlier by Spanish champion and eventual gold medallist Isabel Fernandez. The two have met five times. After last night's victory Fernandez leads 3-2. Last night, it was a judges' decision that gave the Spanish woman the win, but her aggression took her to the gold medal over Cuba's Driulys Gonzalez.

While the women's competition went to plan and the favourites took home the medals, the men's competition in the under 73 kilograms was beset with upsets. The surprise winner of the gold medal was Italy's Giuseppe Maddaloni. Australia's representative in the division, Tom Hill from Canberra, lost his opening-round bout against Peru's German Velazco. Pekli's quest for a medal appeared doomed at the completion of her first-round victory over Azerbaijan's Zulfiyya Huseynova earlier in the day. In control of the match, she appeared to twist her knee in the dying seconds and hobbled back to the mat for the official decision.

Her coach and husband, Gabor, carried her away. Later the Melbourne student, 28, said her knee had caused her no worries. In the jubilation that followed her victory, the knee was forgotten. "It's OK, I can't even feel it at the moment," said the Hungarian-born Pekli. She added that she hoped her medal would give judo a boost in Australia.

"It is very popular around the world," she said. "I very much hope people realise it is the best sport, a great sport." The medal also justifies her decision to move to Australia after the Atlanta Olympics. Pekli became a naturalised Australian last December and only returned to the international scene this year. She has not been allowed to fight in several of the recent Olympic qualifying tournaments, including the world championship, because of her lack of national status. She gained official selection only last May when she won the Oceania championships.

But last night none of that mattered and as soon as the drug test was over, she was going to celebrate in a very Australian way with a few beers. Apart from her husband, her family remains in Hungary the country she represented at the 1992 Karen Lyon Australia won its first judo Olympic medal in 36 years, when Maria Pekli overcame an injured knee to win a bronze medal last night. Not since Ted Boronovskis won a bronze medal at the 1964 Tokyo Games has an Australian stood on an Olympic medal dais for judo, but with the support of a packed house at Darling Harbour, Pekli fought off Italian challenger Cinzia Cavazzuti for an emotional win. It was a close match, neither competitor able to win clear advantage or secure a major score from the referees. In the end it was the judges' split decision that awarded the bout to Pekli and sent the Australian fans wild.

-Nw Jt medal win yesterday. Photo: Phil Carrick Italians pierce French hearts in heated cliffhanger 0 -f WOMEN'S 57K6 Isabel Fernandez ESP SILVER Driulys Gonzalez CUB i TfT" Maria Pekli AUS Kusakabe Kie JPN WOMEN'S 58KG GOLD Soraya Jimenez MEX 222.5KG SILVER Ri Song Hui France's Hugues Maria Pekli celebrates her bronze between Rota and Obry, with Rota securing the first two touches, which tied the score at 38-all. The clock counted down the final minute but neither opponent struck and the match went into extra time, with priority awarded to the Italian. Rota took the advantage and scored the medal-winning touch Yang and Li Stephen Rielly The arrival of the women's Olympic competition was marked by dozens of single yellow carnations being handed to the competitors, VIPs and sundry officials about the Sydney Convention Centre on Sunday. It was a well-intentioned, if slightly cheesy gesture from a harried International Weightlifting Federation seeking a little respite from the wretched early days of competition, which have been blighted by drug suspensions, expulsions and confusion.

It became stunningly obvious yesterday, though, as world records tumbled in a lift-for-lift stoush between Yang Xia of China and Li Feng-Ying of Chinese Taipei, that the embattled organisation need only have scheduled competition in the women's 53-kilogram division a day earlier than it did to have eased some of its grief. Yang won gold and Li silver but Obry holds his face In anguish as the with 42 seconds of extra time remaining. South Korea didn't fence to their usual standard when they paired off against Cuba in the bronze medal match, losing 45-31. And in this country's best result yet, the Australians reached the top eight in the men's team epee after reserve fencer Luc Cartillier pro- FENCING Shady Cosgrove There was wild screaming and chanting from a raucous crowd, and cries of desperation from the combatants as Italy pipped France to take the epee gold 39-38 last night. Argument, confusion, magic what a lift sPirits as records fall Photo: Sahlan Hayes vided the lethal touches that led to Australia's fourth-round victory over China.

The Australians lost their quarter-final match against Italy, the Atlanta Olympic champions, 45-34- The hosts were tied at the end of the second round 10-10 but the Italians were too strong, eventually winning 45-34. the total above her head to claim one of the shortest-lived records in sport and take a 2.5kg advantage into the clean and jerk. As was the case in the snatch, the two did not step on to the lifting platform until the other eight competitors were spent and back in the training room. Li opened with a solid 115kg lift but Yang replied with a new clean and jerk record of 122.5. In an instant, the cat had become the mouse.

To recover the 2.5kg lost in the snatch competition, Li went for 125kg but failed. Both women were straining to get the bar to their chests, where it is allowed to rest before the final, clearance. Yang immediately took advantage of Li's sudden vulnerability and went for 125kg herself, knowing that Li would have to lift 127kg to take the gold if she was successful. Her lift, which teetered momentarily, sealed the gold. Li could do no more.

Italians celebrate their team victory Competition was heated from the start when Italian spectators erupted over a discounted touch by Italian Maurizio Randazzo against Frenchman Hugues Obry in the second round. France had the lead early in the first round with Eric Srecki scoring 4-2 over Alfredo Rota. The French held the advantage North Korean lifter and gold medal favourite Ri Song Hui, who was denied the fifth of her six lifts because, as the Korean camp was arguing, she was held back from the lifting platform by a marshall and was unable to lift within the required two minutes. As Ri wrapped her fingers around the bar and prepared to heave 122.5kg above her head, the clock buzzed its dismissal and the Korean walked back stunned into the arms of her trainer, who it is believed lodged a protest. On the other side of the brouhaha that ensued once Mexican Soraya Jimenez claimed the gold medal with a lift of 222.5kg, 2.5kg more than Ri, was a counter-claim that the Koreans misjudged the amount of time their lifter had left to make her attempt.

The certainty in all of the confusion was that after Jimenez did what no-one thought she could do last night. until the fourth round when Randazzo evened the score at 18-18 against Srecki. Srecki pulled ahead before the round was over, taking a 20-18 lead. In round six, there were mixed cries from the audience when Italian Paolo Milanoli was awarded a yellow card for the bend of his weapon. Meagan Warthold, the first Australian woman weightlifter in the Olympics, produced a personal best in the 58kg class.

by lifting 127.5kg, Ri did not have an opportunity to answer back. In effect, the Korean's penultimate lift had become her last. When it was all over, the sizeable and vocal Mexican crowd was as disbelievingly joyous as the Koreans were disbelieviqg. For His opponent Obry then won a series of single and double touches which gave the French team a three-point lead at 30-27. In round eight, Srecki was awarded a yellow card for running into Milanoli, who took off his mask, cupping the bridge of his nose after the crash.

The final round was heated mixture them certain gold had become silver, for the Mexicans Jimenez had become their country's first medallist in Sydney, their first weightlifting medallist and only the third Mexican woman to win an Olympic medal. Earlier, expectation met with reality for Australians Meagan Warthold and Natasha Barker as Jimenez and the Tigresses of Asia dominated the competition. Neither was expecting to challenge Ri or Jimenez but both met their own modest ambitions in keeping with the Australian camp mantra of doing one's "personal Barker lifted 77.5kg in the snatch and reached a new high in the clean and jerk with 102.5kg to set a new personal mark and national record of 180kg. Warthold snatched 75kg and in the clean and jerk lifted 100kg for her best. before that order finally emerged, the two smashed five world records.

It all began when Li, the clean and jerk world record holder, opted to go after the world snatch record as well with the second of her two lifts. Asking for 98kg to be loaded onto the bar, Li knew that she was seeking to break Meng Xianjuan's record of 97.5kg and to put Yang under competitive pressure. The pair know each other well. They were teammates on the Chinese team before Li disappeared from competition in 1995, only to re-emerge in 1998 as a married woman and a mother competing for Chinese Taipei. Her husband is the national coach.

If anything, though, her successful lift of 98kg appeared to inspire Yang, who countered with 97.5kg. Li then opted for 100kg and another world record to reassert her position but could not manage the lift. With the strain on her face screaming for release, Yang hoisted WEIGHTLIFTING OnUrZ.L Stephen Rielly KSutaTHA 210KG Is there ever a day when weightlift- WOMEN'S 53KG ing and drama do not fall into bed with one another? GOLD Surrounded by the darkness of YangXia drugs, embarrassed by a bungled CHI 225kg expulsion of which we have not heard the last and yet, despite such blLV C.K controversies, still capable of offer-Li Feng-Ying ing the world moments of true TAI 212.5kg sporting greatness, weightlifting was dealing with a bizarre miscal- uKONZL culation last night in the women's Winarni Binti Slamet 58 kilogram competition. INA 202KG On one side of the confusion was 3.