Santavy settles for silver at Games
Real-life drama awaiting him at home as he faces charges related to hit-and-run in Sarnia
GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA — On a day of weightlifting high drama, Canadian Boady Santavy put on a record-breaking performance at the Commonwealth Games. But defending champion Steven Kari of Papua New Guinea went one better.
The 20-year-old from Sarnia had to settle for silver Sunday in the men’s 94-kilogram division while Kari wept for joy atop the medal podium after snatching gold from the Canadian with a do-or-die clean-and-jerk lift of 216 kilograms. India’s Vikas Thakur took bronze.
“He’s strong. But he’s not going to take my gold medal away from me,” the 24-year-old Kari, pounding his heart, said of Santavy after beating him by one kilogram.
There is real-life drama awaiting Santavy back home in the wake of a hit-and-run that left a man seriously injured. Santavy was charged with failing to remain at the scene of the collision after turning himself in, according to a Sarnia police statement dated March 19. He was released on a promise to appear in court.
Santavy asked, through a Canadian team official, that questions be restricted to his competition. But clearly his legal situation has taken a toll.
“It was definitely the hardest time I’ve had in my life training,” he said after receiving his medal. “Coming here, I had a lot of pressure. There was just a lot on my mind but I got through it the best I could.”
Dalas Santavy, his father and coach, sees a future Olympic champion in his son amid the turmoil.
“Under the circumstances he had to have his head on straight today,” he said. “Everything else will hopefully, in time, work itself out. It’s a tragic situation, but we go from there.”
Police say a 29-year-old man was left in serious condition in hospital as a result of the March 18 incident in Sarnia. The family of Nicolas Emmerson Andali says he suffered a broken shoulder blade, clavicle, lacerated spleen, brain bleed and other superficial wounds.
Commonwealth Games Canada president Rick Powers says Santavy is eligible to compete because he has not been convicted of a crime. Santavy was also legally cleared to travel.
In the final competition of the day, defending champion MarieEve Beauchemin-Nadeau of Montreal collected silver behind England’s Emily Godley in the women’s 75-kilogram class.
The 29-year-old BeaucheminNadeau, who also won silver eight years ago in India, made for an exciting finale when she hoisted 126 kilograms on her second attempt in the clean-and-jerk to pull ahead. But Godley matched her lift to win by one kilogram.
“She did a great job,” said Beauchemin-Nadeau, a doctor by trade. “She totally deserves her medal.”
In a sport that is full of attitude and ego, Santavy seemed destined to strut his way to gold.
He made his first five lifts Sunday, cutting an imperious figure at the Carrara Sports and Leisure Centre stage. He hoisted a games-record 168 kilograms in the snatch and then lifted 201 in the clean and jerk, deliberately pausing to look left and right at the crowd as he held what amounted to the weight of pro wrestler Kong Kong Bundy over his head.
His personal-best 369-kilogram total seemed unbeatable, even if he failed at 206 kilograms — ending the attempt before the bar reached his knees. It would have tied his personal clean-and-jerk best, achieved in training.
“My legs didn’t feel as strong as they normally are,” he said of the final attempt.
Kari, who had lifted 154 in the snatch and 202 in the clean and jerk to lie 13 kilograms in arrears, seemed destined to drop to silver. But he jacked up the weight to 216 kilograms and rolled the dice in weightlifting’s equivalent of final Jeopardy.
Kari made the lift — breaking both the games and Commonwealth clean-and-jerk records — to tie a games-record total of 370 kilograms and trigger wild celebration that saw him dance around the stage, hoist his coach in the air and hurl his protective belt into the crowd.
Backstage, a shocked Santavy threw a minitantrum captured on the in-house video as his father tried to calm him.
Santavy was the last of the 14 competitors to lift, some 68 minutes into the competition. While he waited to enter at 160 kilograms, the snatch part of the event began at 117 kilograms.
Santavy nailed 160 kilos on his first attempt, giving the crowd a defiant once-over before exiting stage left. Santavy then made 161 with officials moving up the weight by just one kilo after apparent confusion over whether his coaches had requested the next weight in time.
It didn’t faze Santavy who then hoisted 168 kilograms to erase the games record of 167 set in 2002 by Australian Aleksan Karapetyn.
The successful lift gave the Canadian a nine-kilogram lead over Thakur going into the cleanand-jerk portion. Samoa’s Siaosi Leuo was third at 156 and Kari fourth at 154.
The clean-and-jerk started at 145 kilograms, with Santavy coming in and making his first attempt at 196. He then made 201 — tying his personal best in competition — pounding his chest and pumping his fists in the air after dropping the weight.
“I was pretty certain 201 would have won,” said Santavy. “But he pulled 216 out of nowhere. It was a strong lift. He deserves to win after a lift like that.”