So, a first post on the Blog also begins with a 1...
Ahem, anyway. I was watching the men's 77kg weight category in the Snatch event, when the to-be Olympic Champion Lu Xiaojun, was denied his final lift at 177kg. Lu had just broken the World Record with a lift of 175kg - the record was previously set by him in 2009 at 174kg - when he planned to break it again. What made this astonishing? He was already leading in the Snatch and this was the last lift of the event for all the competitors. It was a pure test of how far he was able to go.
Why was he denied the lift? The judges reasoned that he had taken longer than the allowed 1 minute to take his lift, which is the rule when following the previous lifter. The only problem was that the previous lifter was Lu himself. The lifter that was supposed to precede him pulled out due to injury, and this left Lu with a back to back lift routine - in cases where a lifter follows himself in a consecutive lift, he is allowed 2 minutes to rest between lifts.
Why is this sad? Well, it is amazing that a panel of judges that are watching a weight lifting competition, failed to notice that a lift did not occur... And that they could not work out how to increase a 1 minute rest period to a 2 minute rest period, by adding 1 minute. Not to mention that we missed on the chance to see another World Record breaking performance!
There was a protest from Lu's team, the judges deliberated, then they realised that no-one had lifted since Lu's second lift, they deliberated some more, and they let the clock run down some more and then finally made a decision. Just call the Snatch event finished and turn on the countdown clock to the next event. Great stuff.
Everyone was confused - Lu was still waiting at the platform to take his lift. Eventually we were told what allegedly happened; since the lifter between Lu's lifts intended to take the lift, that it was equivalent to actually taking the time to perform a lift. So, I guess a lifter's intentions can dilate time in the Olympics.
The moral here is that common sense failed. Everyone was upset and the judges had to make up the rules to save face. Owning your errors is embarrassing, but Godly - ask Noah. Why not let Lu lift? Maybe it would be unfair, maybe not - he won the competition in the end anyway. I am worried that the judges had such a tough time figuring out what to do - it really took about 6 elderly officials longer than 2 minutes to figure out that 1+1=2.
Were the O-levels really that hard? Different topic... Congrats to Lu Xiaojin who smashed the World Record for the total lift too, with 379kg!
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