|
| Event type

Featherweight (≤62 kilograms), Men

Date17 September 2000 — 10:30 (B), 18:30 (A)
StatusOlympic
LocationSydney Convention Centre, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Sydney, New South Wales (Convention Centre)
Participants21 from 21 countries
FormatTotal of best lifts in snatch and clean & jerk determined placement. Ties broken by lightest bodyweight.

Naim Süleymanoğlu was the three-time defending champion but had somewhat retired after the 1996 Olympics, although he left open the possibility of a return. However, he was encouraged to come out of retirement by IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and go for a fourth gold medal. That did not last long as Süleymanoğlu missed all three snatch attempts, was out of the competition, and then retired for good. The favorites were Greece’s Leonidas Sabanis, the 1998 World Champion, Croatia’s Nikolay Peshalov, and China’s Le Maosheng, the 1999 World Champion. Peshalov had been an Olympic silver medalist in 1992 and bronze medalist as a bantamweight in 1996, but while competing for Bulgaria. He had changed allegiance to Croatia, with Croatia paying for the right to allow him to compete for them.

Peshalov took the lead in the snatch with 150.0 kg, and then extended it in the clean & jerk, equalling the world record with a total of 325.0 kg to win the gold medal. He would return in 2004 and win a fourth Olympic medal, a bronze, as a lightweight. Behind Peshalov, there was a three-way tie on total with 317.5 kg between Sabanis, Belarussian Gennady Oleshchuk, and Bulgarian Sevdalin Minchev, however Minchev was disqualified for doping for using Lasix (furosemide), a powerful diuretic often used as a masking agent to enable athletes to evade doping positives. Sabanis won the silver medal on bodyweight as Le placed fourth and missed the podium.

PosCompetitor(s)NOCK
1Nikolaj PešalovCRO325.0ORGold
2Leonidas SampanisGRE317.5Silver
3Henadzi AliashchukBLR317.5Bronze
4Le MaoshengCHN315.0
5Sayed Mahdi PanzvanIRI302.5
6Hiroshi IkehataJPN300.0
7Vladimir PopovMDA295.0
8Elxan SüleymanovAZE292.5
9Yurik SarkisyanAUS290.0
10Zoltán FarkasHUN287.5
11Marcus StephenNRU285.0
12Samson N'Dicka-MatamFRA285.0
13Dmitry LomakinKAZ282.5
14Kim Yeong-TaeKOR275.0
15Sunday MathiasNGR265.0
DQSevdalin MinchevBUL[317.5]1
DNFIm Yong-SuPRK
DNFÜmürbek BazarbaýewTKM
DNFAleksey BortkovRUS
DNFChom SingnoiTHA
DNFNaim SüleymanoğluTUR