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.