Prapawadee wins Thailand's first gold medal at Olympics

BEIJING, Aug 10 (TNA) - Thailand's Prapawadee Jaroenrattanatarakul won the Olympic gold medal in the women's 53kg weightlifting on Sunday, the first gold medal so far for Thailand in the games.

The high-spirited Prapawadee lifted 95kg in snatch and set a new Olympic
record of 126kg in clean and jerk for a winning total of 221kg. She
attempted to break the world record of 129kg held by China's Li Ping, but
failed.

South Korean Yoon Jin-hee beat Belarus' Nastassia Novikava because of a
lower body weight for the silver medal as both made the two-lift total of
213kg.

Chinese weightlifters were not present in the class.

Thailand aims to win four medals in weightlifting in Beijing. However, two
of the country's top medal hopes failed to finish in the top three at the
games on Saturday.

Premsiri Bunpithak and Pensiri Laosirikul failed to finish in the top
three at the Beijing Olympics.

Ms. Pensiri only finished fifth, while Ms. Premsiri failed to make a
single success in three attempts in the snatch category and was eliminated
in the 48kg division.

The Thai female weightlifting squad claimed two gold and two bronze medals
in weightlifting at the 2004 Games.

Athens bronze medallist Wandee Kamaeim is the only female lifter remaining
from the 2004 Olympics. She will take part in the 58kg division in Beijing
on Monday.