TURK LIFTS NEW RECORDS
Turkish weightlifter Halil Mutlu set three world records to win the 56kg gold medal on Saturday.
He broke his own records for the snatch and clean and jerk, and set a new total lift world mark. He lifted 138kg in the snatch and 167.5kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 305.0.
Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria won the silver and Wu Wenxiong of China the bronze.
Romania faces banishment from international weightlifting competition for the rest of the year after two lifters failed drug tests.
Under International Weightlifting Federation rules, any nation is banished for the rest of that year if three or more of its weightlifters test positive for banned drugs.
The IWF is expected to announce Romania's ban today, although the country's four remaining weightlifters would be allowed to continue competing in the Olympics.
Traian Ciharean, a bronze medalist at the Barcelona Olympics, and Adrian Mateias failed dope tests that were administered to all 257 Olympic weightlifters and were expelled from their team.
Weightlifting is the only Olympic sport in which all athletes were tested for drugs before the Sydney Games began.
A third Romanian, Razvan Ilie, a 1999 world champion in the snatch at 77 kilograms, tested positive earlier this year and was thrown off the team before the Sydney games.
PETER WATTS
Sunday Times
