Sarabjit Singh and Geeta Rani proved that they were misfits in the competition by performing pathetically in their respective categories.
Indian weightlifters, who have returned to the Asian Games after eight years, concluded their dismal outing here today without a single medal to their credit with Sarabjit Singh and Geeta Rani proving that they were misfits in the competition by performing pathetically in their respective categories.
Sarabjit cleared 340kg in the men's plus 105kg category and just about avoided the wooden spoon by finishing 10th out of 11 competitors in an event in which the gold medal winner, Iran's Behdadof Salimikordasiabi, hoisted 100kgs more than him.
The silver medalist - South Korea's Sanggeun Jeon --cleared 428 kg, 88kg better than the effort put in by the Indian while the bronze medal went to anther Iranian strongman Sajjad Anousiravani who lifted 437kg.
Sarabjit's endeavour to do better than what he eventually cleared - 160kg in snatch on his second attempt and 180kg in clean and jerk - failed miserably.
He attempted 171kg in snatch and failed in all three tries.
Later, after lifting the barbells weighing 180kg in his first attempt in the clean and jerk, he flunked when he increased it by 20kgs.
Similarly, Geeta Rani was totally out of her depth in the women's over 75kg category and finished last with a total lift of 227kg.
In snatch, she cleared 95kg in her first attempt but failed when five more kgs were added to the bar.
In clean and jerk, she started at 120kg and ended with a successful lift of 132kg.
The gold was claimed by South Korea's Jang Mi Ran (311kg). China's Suping Meng, who also was successful with the same weight, took the second place on account of his higher body weight while M Grabovetskaya of Kazakhstan took the bronze with 290kg lift, which was 63 kgs more than the Indian's performance.
This was the second time that the lifters have gone back without winning a medal after drawing a blank in 2002 Asian Games at Busan.
They did not take part in 2006 because of the ban imposed following dope flunks in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
Indian lifters have been among the medals in every previous Asian Games from 1982 in New Delhi to 1998 in Bangkok.
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