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Russian Lifter: World's Best

ATLANTA (AP) -- Andrey Chemerkin earned the title of ``world's strongest man'' on Tuesday. Again.

And Alexander Kurlovich of Belarus and Manfred Nerlinger of Germany failed in their attempts to make Olympic weightlifting history.

Chemerkin, the gold medalist at the 1995 world championships, broke the world record in the clean-and-jerk on his final lift to win the gold medal with a total of 1,008 1/2 pounds.

The total equaled the world record set by Kurlovich on Nov. 27, 1994, and the clean-and-jerk effort of 573 pounds broke the record of 562 pounds set by silver medalist Ronny Weller of Germany a few minutes earlier.

Weller finished with a total of 1,003 pounds. Stefan Botev of Australia won the bronze medal with 992 pounds.

After his final lift, as the crowd of around 5,000 at the Georgia World Congress Center gave him a standing ovation, Chemerkin grabbed his coach and lifted him onto his shoulders in celebration.

Kurlovich was trying to become the second lifter to win gold medals in three Olympic Games. He finished fifth with a 936 3/4-pound total.

Naim Suleymanoglu of Turkey, the man known as ``Pocket Hercules,'' claimed his third gold medal in the 141-pound division last week.

Nerlinger was trying to win a medal in his fourth straight Olympics, but was sixth with a total of 931 1/4 pounds. Only one other lifter, Norbert Schmensky of the United States, has accomplished that feat.

Two Americans were among the 19 entries in the final weightlifting division of the games, and both were injured to cut short their performances.

Mark Henry, of Silsbee, Texas, the American record-holder at 881 3/4 pounds, finished 14th by lifting 832 pounds. Thomas Ingalsbe of Powder Springs, Ga., finished 16th with 804 1/2 pounds.

Henry suffered a back injury during the snatch portion of the competition, and reinjured it while lifting 446 1/4 pounds on his first attempt in the clean-and-jerk. He passed on his final two lifts.

``I did my last lift for my teammates,'' he said, noting he wouldn't have had a total without the lift. ``The doctor told me not to go out there, but it was something I had to do for my team. I guess you could call it a success, not a personal success, but a success for my teammates.

``I've always been a proud person, and it kind of hurt me not to be able to perform, but there will be other days.''

Henry, 25, weighed 366 pounds while placing 10th at the 1992 Olympics, making him the heaviest lifter in the history of the games. He weighed 407 3/4 pounds Tuesday.

Competing in the first of the two sessions, Ingalsbe became the 2,000th lifter in Olympic history when he made his first attempt in the snatch. He suffered a pulled abdominal muscle while warming up between the snatch and clean-and-jerk sessions, and was successful on one of his two lifts after that. Following the good lift, he collapsed on the platform and didn't try his third lift.

``It's tight, it's going to hurt for a while, but it's going to be all right,'' he said. ``I did the best I could, I'm happy with that. I wanted to go for the national record, but I couldn't.

``The 2000 Olympics will be a different story.''

Two lifters withdrew -- Leonid Taranenko of Belarus and Igor Halilov of Uzbekistan. Taranenko, 40, who won a gold medal in the 1980 Olympics and a silver in the 1992 games, was injured during warmups. Halilov hurt himself while missing his second lift in the snatch. Neither injury was believed to be serious.

The weightlifting competition, comprised of 10 divisions, ended with 15 world records set.

None of the Americans won a medal; no U.S. team member has won one since 1984. The highest finisher was Wes Barnett of St. Joseph, Mo., sixth in the 238-pound division.

But there were 12 American records established -- three in the snatch, four in the clean-and-jerk, and five in the totals of the two lifts.