Olympics: Kazakhstan's Podobedova wins women's 75kg gold

Kazakhstan's Svetlana Podobedova won the Olympic Games women's -75kg weightlifting gold medal on Friday with a total lift of 291kg, Vesti.kz Podobedova, 26, defeated Russia's Natalya Zabolotnaya who also lifted 291kg, but took silver on bodyweight. In snitch the Kazakhstan weightlifter was second with 130 kg. Russian's Natalya Zabolotnaya was one kilogram ahead of her. In clean and jerk Podobedova lifted 161 kg while the Russian athlete manged to lift only 160 kg. The overall result of Kazakhstan's athlete was 291 kg. The athlete from Russia had the same result, but the Kazakhstan weightlifter was 22 grams lighter. These 22 grams mean the victory for her. Belarusian Iryna Kulesha won bronze with 269kg (121+148). This is Kazakhstan's fourth gold medal. Cyclist Alexander Vinokourov, weightlifters Zulfiya Chinshanlo and Maiya Maneza are the three other champions. Four gold medal is a record for Kazakhstan. Before Kazakhstan athletes won three gold medals at Olympics (in 1996 and 2000) at most. Weightlifter Svetlana Podobedova won the fourth gold for Kazakhstan's team in a very intense competition with her Russian rival Natalya Zabolotnaya. Another promising Russia's weightlifter Nadezda Evstyukhina failed all three snatch attempts and was no longer part of the fight. Podobedova started her snatch with 126kg, but failed. Russia's athlete Natalya Zabolotnaya successfully lifted 125kg at the first attempt. At her second attempt Podobedova successfully lifted 126 kg. Zabolotnaya answered with 128 kg at her second attempt. The third attempt was successful for both weightlifters: Podobedova lifted 130kg and Zabolotnaya lifted 129kg. In clean and jerk Zabolotnaya started with a weight of 147 kg, at the second attempt she lifted 155kg and at the third attempt - 160kg. Podobedova at the first attempt lifted 150kg, at the second - 156kg and at the third 161kg smashing the Olympic record. Her overall result was 291kg. "I don't believe that it is over. It is so exiting and incredible for me, sweeter than all the world records. I'm very happy. I am grateful to all my supporters, to all Kazakhstan citizens. I love you. It was a hard fight, my competitors were very strong especially Natalya, she always fights to the end," said Svetlana Podobedova, two-time World Champion, Champion of Europe and Asia, and now Olympic Gold Winner. "We did what we had to do. Our girls are two-time World Champions. We were training very hard. World and Asian competitions was only passage competitions. They both should have won Olypmic gold back in Beijing. But what didn't work out then worked well this time," said Alexey Ni, Kazakhstan weightlifters' chief coach. "My congratulation to all the people of Kazakhstan on the fourth gold at the Olympics, this is a great day for Kazakhstan. For the first time Kazakhstan won four gold medals. I think we are not going to stop at four gold medals. I'm sure we will win more. We have got more gifted sportsmen. I wish health and luck to our athletes," said Talgat Yermegiyayev, Chairman of the Agency of Sport and Physical Culture of Kazakhstan.