Boevski Tops Teammate in 152-Pound Showdown
Two Olympic medals, two world records. Bulgaria’s weightlifters will take this over a tarnished medal any day.
Galabin Boevski won a down-to-the-last-lift showdown of world record-holders Wednesday with Bulgarian teammate Georgi Markov to take the gold medal at 152 pounds.
Boevski won a few hours after Ivan Ivanov, a former Olympic champion and a silver medalist Saturday at 123 pounds had his medal stripped after testing positive for a diuretic, a banned substance.
The only way Boevski could do it was to match Markov world record for world record, and Boevski did, showing he is fully recovered from a knee injury that threatened his Olympic chances.
After Markov broke Boevski’s world record by lifting 363 3/4 pounds in the snatch, Markov broke his world record in the clean and jerk by lifting 434 1/2 pounds and tied his record for total lift at 788 pounds.
Because Olympic marks are kept only in 2 1/2 pounds increments, Boevski’s clean and jerk will be listed in the Olympic record book as 429 3/4 pounds.
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