SYDNEY Georgy Ivanov, the Bulgarian head coach of the national Iranian weightlifting team, said at the end of the Tuesday Olympic competitions that the two gold medals Iranian champions bagged in Sydney belong to all Iranians.
Speaking to the IRNA correspondent who covers events in Sydney, Ivanov said in broken Persian that the pre-Olympic order and discipline in the weightlifting camps in Tehran and other cities proved effective.
Ivanov who joined the Iranian Weightlifting Federation five years ago appreciated indefatigable efforts of the Iranian weightlifters during the said period, adding: "I very much love them like my own children and I've been used to them." Hossein Rezazadeh, dubbed as "the world's strongest man" set a new world record in the over 105kg by lifting a combined total of 472.5kg on Tuesday.
Rezazadeh's superheavyweight gold brought to and end Russia's 44-year-old domination of this category.
Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis) Hojjatoleslam Mahdi Karrubi in a fax addressed to the Iranian weightlifters, a copy of which was made available to IRNA, congratulated them on the achievement.
He said in his message of congratulations that "hero Iranian youth" scored another honorable achievement for the Islamic Republic of Iran in an international sport event.
Another Iranian weightlifter, Hossein Tavakkoli of 105kg category, won the gold medal of the competitions on Monday.
The two gold medals promoted Iran to the 25th place in the list of the medal winners of the Sydney Olympics by Tuesday.
(IRNA)