2004 Kiev - European Championships

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The first thing you notice about Kiev is that most people don’t speak English. However with a little effort
fluent Russian speakers find that they have little trouble communicating. (For the rest of us things are a
bit more difficult however.) The city is rather large and despite being a bit run down it has many parks and
all the usual stuff you would expect to find in Kiev etc yada yada yada…
The Lifting

I arrived too late for the 56's. This was due to a late change in the Lufthansa flight schedule and I can
only assume that this was a deliberate attempt by communist diehards to prevent me from lifting the lid on
the news story of the year - the European Weightlifting Championships! I didn’t take any notes and there is
no need for me to describe much because the results and pictures speak for themselves. Notable events in
the 62’s were the excellent lifts made by non-communist lifters of the free world, Tom Goegebeur and
Kamran Panjavi. The event was closely fought with Bulgarian Sevdalin Angelov emerging victorious over
Romanias Adrian Jigau. The Greek lifter Sabanis was unfortunate and bombed on his clean and jerks.

The 69s witnessed a hard fought battle from which Ekrem Celil emerged the winner. This was definitely
his day and even after he had won the gold he came out for a third jerk to make a very strong 190Kg. The
Croatian, Pechalov, made a fantastic last attempt at 182.5Kg to take the silver.

Turkey cleaned up in the 77's by taking all the golds and silvers. Yilmaz with his immaculate technique was
beaten into second place by his 19 year old team mate Sagir Taner who set a new junior record with a
200Kg jerk.

The 85's saw the Turks once again in very strong positions taking the gold and bronze. Piros Dimas made an
appearance but was a bit mediocre. Probably saving his powder for Athens. A Russian I have not seen
before, Tahkushev, took the silver. The Belorussian snatching machine made a useful 175Kg but could not
equal his best. He then made a maximum jerk of 190Kg, just 15Kg more than he snatched. Amongst the
bombers was the Russian Aslambek Ediev who, amazingly, trains in Grozny, Chechnia. How he reaches the
top level of Russian lifting under these conditions is amazing.

Bulgarian Dobrev won the 94's taking all the golds. He had to fight it out with a bunch of guys I have never
seen before but his 185 snatch gave him an advantage they could not overcome. Kakiashvili made an
appearance but seemed to be suffering from an injury and missed his first jerk, unable to do more than
deadlift the weight. He did eventually make the lift and get a total but he was not about to push himself at
this stage. Hopefully he will be in top shape for Athens.

As usual the 105's was the most exciting class as far as I was concerned. Some of the better known lifters
such as Smortchkov, Gotfryd and Rozaoryonov were absent but there was still a strong showing from the
Russians and Moldovan. One of the Russians being Dmitri Klokov, son of the well known 1980's champion
Vyacheslav Klokov. In Loutraki Tsagaev, who to me seems to have the ideal physique for snatching bombed
on his snatches. He missed his two openers on 180 and I thought I was about to witness a rerun of
Vancouver. For his final lift he elected to go to 182.5 and had to wait for a couple of others to make their
attempts before finally coming out and making the lift and putting himself into 8th place. His starting weight
in the jerks was originally 222.5 and then 225. As all the others fought it out he finally moved his starting
weight to 230Kg so that he could wait until everyone else was finished before starting. He cleaned the
weight easily but appeared to jerk it forward. I thought that we were about to see a rerun of the snatches
but he managed to fight and gain control of the weight. This put him in third place and so now he set about
going for gold. The bar was loaded to 237.5Kg, a new European record. Once again he cleaned it and
prepared for the jerk. Once again he appeared to jerk it forward and once again he managed to control
and save the lift. A new record and a gold medal.

Finally the fat boys. The first major astonishment was Pavel Najdek. He made three out of three snatches
and finished with 190Kg!! Unheard of! I was hoping he would make his equal PB in the jerk of 250Kg but
having cleaned it he missed the jerk. Ronny Weller who had not lifted in Vancouver was back and made a
creditable 437.5 for a few medals. In the end the enormous Cholakov won with 445 beating Scerbathis into
second place with 437.5. He attempted 252.5Kg for the gold but was unable to rack the weight properly
and dropped a quarter of a ton of Eleiko technology forward as he tried to stand.

The end.

Terry takes the lead!! Welsh geezer Terry Perdue takes the lead with his opening lift. Some lifters never take the lead, some require two or three lifts before they get there but Britains Terry Perdue does it with his opening lift!!

RipSteel : Terry, firstly congratulations on your lifts. Five out of six successful lifts is quite a good result.
Are you pleased?
T.P. : Oh yes. I had a good competition and happy enough with my lifts.

RipSteel : You missed your last snatch however. Any thoughts on that lift?
T.P. : Yes that was a bit unfortunate. To be honest I wasn't concentrating because I had been hoping to
go for something higher but by the time the message had been sent to the technical controller it was too
late and I had to rush to the platform before I got timed out.

RipSteel : What weight had you wanted?
T.P. : Well I had been quite keen to go for a new personal best. I had two good snatches on the board
already and I thought there was nothing to lose. I wanted to try for 195Kg but I think events just
conspired against me. I don't blame anyone in particular because that is the nature of this sport but I am
a bit annoyed that I never got the chance to attempt it because I really felt confident.

RipSteel : That would have been great. Still, you did make three solid jerks and put in a good total.
T.P. : Yes. Initially I was tempted to go for a heavy third jerk but after the problem with my snatch I
thought I should just play it safe. I would have liked to attempt about 235-240Kg but I think in retrospect
we made the right decision on the weights we chose.

RipSteel : For a while you were well and truly in the lead. Was it a 'pressure' situation?
T.P. : I was in the lead for a while at the beginning of the clean and jerk session and I must admit it is a
rather sobering position to be in. As soon as you are in the lead you are the one who everyone wants to
beat. As I completed each lift I was very aware that there were twenty guys in the warm-up room out
to beat me.

RipSteel : Unfortunately, despite you early lead, you failed to gain a medal. What happened?
T.P. : Well I was overtaken. Simple as that. That is the nature of this sport. The weights speak for
themselves and one minute you are in the lead and the next you are not. As I said, once you are in the
lead suddenlythere are twenty guys out to beat you and slowly but surely they whittled away at my lead.

RipSteel : Are you saying that there was some sort of cooperative pact between the other athletes to beat
you??
T.P. : Well, I wouldn't go so far as to use the word 'conspiracy' ...
RipSteel : I didn't...
T.P. : ...but I think there are a few facts which I think we ought to consider. Firstly, the vast majority of
the people who beat me were from former communist countries. These people have Russian as either a
first or second language and they are the product of decades of Marxist-Leninist education and
indoctrination. Although they now live in democratic countries old habits die hard, if you know what I mean.

RipSteel : I notice amongst the athletes who placed higher that you there was a Spaniard and a Swede.
Are you saying that they were also part of the conspiracy?
T.P. : Well I don't to get too deeply into this but consider the following points. One - the bar and weights
were made by ELEIKO, a Swedish company! Two - six years ago when I was on holiday in Majorca I caught
a stomach bug which put me in bed for three days. Coincidence? Maybe...

RipSteel : But one of the athletes who beat you was your own team mate Gurbinder Cheema!
T.P. : I know. A pretty sad state of affairs when the one guy you think you can rely on turns out to be
a communist agent eh! I'd known him for years as well.

RipSteel : In conclusion you do seem a bit disillusioned with the whole thing. Any bright side?
T.P. : Well I did beat the French athlete so it wasn't a total dead loss...