HellenicAthletes.com
Stars aligning once again for Greek Weightlifting team
By Chris Galakoutis
Monday, October 9 2006 1:00:09 AM
The 2006 Greek weightlifting team, one short on experience but long on injuries, arrived in Santo Domingo over a week ago with several question marks. It departed late Sunday afternoon feeling pretty good about the week of competition just passed. Those pleasant thoughts may go a long way in making the grueling return flight to Athens a little more bearable.
In a spectacular finale on Saturday, made more so not only by the awe inspiring spectacle of enormous men lifting enormous weights but also the presence of world champion and across the board world record holder Hossein Reza Zadeh of Iran, Dimitris Papageridis put in the best performance of his young career on a world stage with his 5th place finish in the snatch, and 6th place overall.
| Papageridis, at 20 years old, was the youngest of eleven competitors in the +105 kgs “A” group. He weighed in at 137 kgs (302 lbs), and went on to lift just over 400 lbs in the snatch and 488 lbs in the clean and jerk. Afterwards, Papageridis said: “If anyone had told me beforehand I would finish 6th overall at the World Championships, I would have been quite happy. Nevertheless, I could have lifted more weight in both categories, and in future events the goal is to have six successful lifts. “It is a very tough group in the super-heavyweights with athletes like Reza Zadeh, Udachyn of Ukraine and Scerbatihs of Latvia. |
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"Those athletes are the biggest stars of world weightlifting. I will continue to look them in the eyes despite it being an extremely difficult thing to do.”
Nikos Kourtidis, the other 20-year-old with tremendous talent, put on a very respectable show in Santo Domingo as well, despite suffering a shoulder injury the week before the team departed for the Caribbean island. He made all three attempts in the snatch, placing 5th with 173 kgs on his 3rd attempt. The 4th place finisher in the snatch, overall silver medalist Szymon Kolecki of Poland, also lifted the same 173 kgs, but finished ahead of Kourtidis on a slight body weight differential.
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In the clean and jerk, Kourtidis made his first attempt at 210 kgs, but failed on his next two at 217. What was interesting to note was that at the European Jr. Weightlifting Championships last month in Italy, Kourtidis lifted 221 kgs in the clean and jerk; a similar result would have given him two gold medals in Santo Domingo including the overall gold at 94 kgs. |
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“Perhaps if I competed with them the result would have been different. We must look to tomorrow however, as we can not change the result here.”
Coach Valerios Leonidis, a legend of Greek weightlifting having participated in a historic head to head competition against the "Pocket Hercules" Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey in Atlanta, told us that physical strength alone is not enough in this sport and that the mental aspect is a critical component.
Both Kourtidis and Papageridis went up against much older competitors in their respective weight classes; lifters with much more experience and arguably at the heights of their careers in terms of physical and mental toughness. That these two young weightlifters performed at this level, at this point in their careers on a world stage speaks volumes.
It may also speak to the passion for the sport in Greece by coaches like Leonidis and head coach Christos Iakovou, the architect of the 1990’s “Dream Team”. With a little luck on the injury front other young talents, such as Spiros Stamatiadis – the other 5th place finisher in the snatch in the 77 kgs category – Kostas Papadopoulos and Thanasis Tsiridis are more than capable of coming through with improved performances, helping the entire Greek team hit its goals of sending the maximum number of lifters to Beijing.
The next major competition for the team will be the European Championships next spring, where this young team as well as "Dream Team" members Leonidas Sabanis and Victor Mitrou will aim for maximum placings. That will be followed by the World Championships next fall in Thailand, where final spots for the Olympic games will be determined.
With two years to go before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the stars just might be aligning in a familiar pattern for the storied Hellenic Weightlifting team.
Updated 10/9/06 9:45 AM EDT