KZBlog

Ilya Ilin has won Kazakhstan its first gold medal – in weightlifting, 94kg group! It’s not only the first gold medal of the 2008 Olympic Games, but Kazakhstan’s first gold in weightlifting, a sport that where Kazakh women have been bringing in medals and the men have been left with nothing, at least here in Beijing.

It was a tense match from the start and the last half of the competition didn’t provide a relief to the tension as the even at the end, the gold was still up for grabs.

Going into the “clean and jerk” competition, the Azerbaijaini Nizami Pashayev was in the lead with 181kg “snatched”. Both Ilin and the Iranian lifter, Asghar Ebrahimi, lifted 180kgs but after Ilin’s second lift he was rubbing his left arm and opted not to take a third try.

With a potential injury, it was a bold move for him to set a weight of 225kg as his first lift for the “clean and jerk”. Other lifters began at 205-215kgs. By the time Ilin’s turn came up, Arsen Kasabiyev of Georgia was in the lead with Szymon Kolecki of Poland, Ebrahimi, Pashayev close behind. Ilin rethought his daring strategy of going straight to the top a little and made his first attempt at 223kg.

Unfortunately he made the same mistake that other Kazakh weightlifters have made and rushed his lift. He ended up making it no higher than his chest. While Kazakhstan alternately hyperventilated and yelled Durok! at the screen, Ilin came up for a second attempt and successfully lifted 223 to make his total an impressive 403.

No sooner had he done so when Kolecki came up and confidently lifted 224kgs. That tied him with Ilin, and thankfully the Kazakh lifter weighs in at 93.64kg, .09 kilograms less than the Pole. In case of a tie, the lighter competitor wins. However, Kolecki had one more lift and so did Kasabiyev.

Ilin came back up to try to sew up his victory lifting 226kgs without too much trouble and brought his total to 406. With no choice for the victory, Kolecki set 228kg on the bar to bring his total to 407. Fortunately for Kazakhstan, the Polish lifter couldn’t get it above his knees.

At this point, I was perhaps not the only person watching who forgot that the Georgian had another go. In between text-messaging and jumping around, I noticed Kasabiyev take the stand, with a weight of 231 set. That would put him squarely in the lead and leave Ilin with another silver in Kazakhstan’s hat. Good but not great.

This was destined to be an exciting match. The massive Georgian loomed over the bars, heaved them up almost to his chest before he gave in at the waist and fell. He tried to raise the bar to hurl it off of him, but his knees crumpled and he ended up flat on his back, the barbell pinning him down by the bar. Fortunately he was not hurt! But perhaps we can be forgiven for not being sympathetic as Ilin’s face cracked into a huge smile! He was not without tears as the Kazakh national anthem was heard for the first time in Beijing.

Ilin has long been considered a prodigy and a great hope for Kazakhstan. At 20 years old, he is a student at Kyzylorda University. He broke the under-18 world record at age 17 with a clean and jerk of 216kg, a record that still stands. So does his total of 386kgs for a junior. He also won the gold medal in the 2005 and 2006 World Weightlifting Championships.