Kunjarani finishes fifth

Veteran lifter Kunjarani Devi lifted a total of 190 kilos but finished outside the medals bracket in the 48 kg category at the Olympics weightlifting competition in Athens on Saturday.

Kunjarani, the oldest woman lifter at 36, ended up fifth after a rousing contest, which was won by Nurcan Taylan of Turkey with a world record lift of 210 kg.

The silver went to Li Zhuo of China with a lift of 205 kg while the bronze went to Thailand's Aree Wiratthaworn with a total of 200 kg.

Kunjarani had a bad start, failing to lift 82.5 kg in the first attempt in snatch. Though she made amends in the next attempt, she failed to lift 85 kg in the final effort and slipped to seventh position at the end of the snatch event.

Faced with an uphill task to leap frog past four lifters and lay claim on the bronze medal, the Assistant Commandant with the Central Reserve Police Force began with a lift of 102.5 kg. She then successfully lifted 107.5 kg on second attempt but failed in her third effort on 112.5 and finished with a tally of 190 kg.

But the star of the day was the Turkish lifter, who broke the world record for overall lift as well as snatch.

Her total lift of 210 was 2.5 kg better than the earlier record held by China's Wang Mingjuan since 2002.

Earlier in snatch, Taylan broke the record of Zhuo with a lift of 95 kg in her second attempt and then bettered it by 2.5 kg in her last effort.

Weightlifting: Women's under 48kg - Final Results