Malaysian weightlifters fall flat in Yangon

YANGON: The Malaysian weightlifters continued to disappoint as they failed to get on the podium for the second day running at the Thein Phyu Stadium in Yangon on Saturday.

The biggest disappointment of the day was Mohd Hafifi Mansor, who failed to get among the medal finishers in the men’s 69kg category which only had four competitors.

Hafifi, the 2010 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, had been tipped as a gold medal contender prior to the Games. However, he failed miserably after only clearing his first attempt of 137kg in the snatch. It did not get better for the 23-year-old in the clear and jerk after only managing to clear his first mark of 175kg in the third attempt.

Although his 312kg total was the same as Thailand’s Tairat Bunsuk, the latter was awarded the bronze medal due to a lighter body weight.

Hafifi was too distraught to speak to the awaiting Malaysian media and remained in the athletes’ preparation room even after the following event had begun.

The men’s 69kg gold was won by Indonesia’s Deni Deni with a 324kg total, with Myanmar’s Kyaw Moe Win (314kg) taking the silver.

Meanwhile, national women’s lifter Azizah Fadzil also finished last of four competitors in the 53kg event.

After completing her lifts for a lowly 177kg, Azizah was thrown a lifeline at sneaking into the bronze medal position when Indonesia’s Citra Febriamti failed at her first two attempts to clear 105kg in the clean and jerk. 

However, the Indonesian shattered Azizah’s hopes by making a clean lift in her final attempt to secure the bronze with a 191kg total. Myanmar’s Aye Thanda Lwin took the gold on 202kg, with Vietnam’s Thuy Nguyen Thi winning the silver with a 191kg total.