Dewi Safitri's Youth Olympic Bronze Medal Backs Big Talk

Dewi Safitri promised she would bring home an Independence Day gift for Indonesia from the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. And the 17-year-old weightlifter did more than just talk by snatching bronze in the girls’ 53-kilogram division on Monday, the first medal for Indonesia at the Games.


Dewi’s third-place podium effort was powered by a 71-kg snatch lift and then a 100-kg lift in the clean and jerk for a combined lift of 171kg.

Her Games performance went one kilogram better than her total at the 2009 Asian Youth Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where she placed third and punched her ticket to the Youth Olympics.

“Before I left for Singapore I promised that I would get a medal as an Independence Day gift for the country. I did it,” Dewi told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday.

Bulgaria’s Boyanka Kostova won the gold with a total lift of 192kg, while silver went to Taiwan’s Kuo Hsing Chun with a 174-kg effort.

Despite the medal, Indonesia’s weightlifting coach, Sodikin, said his star lifter could have done better still.

“That’s not her best performance,” Sodikin said. “I think it was because she felt a bit more pressure as she was the country’s best hope for a medal.”

Sodikin said that last week Dewi lifted 182kg — 77kg in the snatch and 105kg in the clean and jerk — in training before heading off to Singapore.

“But this is still a great achievement and I hope it motivates other young athletes, especially lifters, to excel on the world stage,” he said.

Indonesia’s other star lifter, 16-year-old Zainuddin, failed to follow in Dewi’s footsteps after the pride of the boys squad finished in fifth in the 62-kg division with a total lift of 239kg.

Kim Song-chol, from North Korea, won the gold with a 257-kg total lift, followed by Colombia’s Jose Mena (247kg) and Turkey’s Emre Buyukunlu (246kg).

Zainuddin made the team when he replaced another Indonesian lifter, 15-year-old Sumaryanto, who was younger than the Games’ minimum age requirement for lifters.

(This article was published on www.thejakartaglobe.com on Aug. 17, 2010. Photo: SPH-SYOGOC Photo/George Tay)