Olympics 2016: Weightlifter Damon Kelly misses out on making third Games

FOUR years of effort was foiled by one red light as the gentle giant of Australian weightlifting fell cruelly short of making his third Olympics.

Weightlifter Damon Kelly has missed out on going to Rio.

FOUR years of effort was foiled by one red light as the gentle giant of Australian weightlifting fell cruelly short of making his third Olympics.

Brisbane’s Damon Kelly thought he was on his way to Rio when he lifted a 217kg snatch at the Oceania Games in Fiji on the weekend.

But when the weight dropped to the floor he received just one white light and two reds from the judges which deemed it an unsuccessful lift.

Had he received another white light he would have nailed his heart’s desire.

“It’s pretty tough,’’ Kelly told News Corp on Sunday. “It is heartbreaking when it happens like that, coming down to one lift.

“I thought I had it and so did a lot of people who came up to me later. But there is nothing I can do now. That’s it.’’

Kelly will turn his attention to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games after Cameroon-born Simplice Ribouem and former Cross-Fit star Tia-Clair Toomey were chosen to be Australia’s sole weightlifting representatives in Rio.

In other Games news, the stunning rise of Victorian middle-distance runner Linden Hall continued in the Diamond in Eugene, Oregon, yesterday with the 24-year-old clocking a slick Rio standard of 4:01.78 in the women’s 1500m.

Shaving more than three seconds off her personal best, Hall came within a second of the Australian record held by Sarah Jamieson to enhance her chances of a late call-up for Rio.

Gold Coast platform diver Domonic Bedggood looks set to qualify for his first Olympic Games but a selection trials full of shocks and flops has left serious question marks hanging over Australia’s Rio diving team.

Australian selectors will meet on Monday and Tuesday to finalise the 10-person team to take to Rio, but are bracing for challenges and appeals in the 48 hours after advising athletes who is and isn’t on the plane to Brazil.

Bedggood left selectors in no doubt he was the man to take to Rio in the 10m platform, winning the national title in Melbourne on Sunday with 437.50 points.

But shock performances by Gold Coast’s Olympic silver medallist Brittany Broben in the 10m platform and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Esther Qin in the 3m springboard has selectors facing tough calls on the team to take to Rio.

Broben dislocated her shoulder withdrew midway through her 10m final on Saturday as Melissa Wu secured her third Olympic selection by winning the title.

Broben immediately sought “extenuating circumstances” to be considered for her injury-marred selection titles and given her international record she could be granted a reprieve with two divers qualified for each individual event at the Olympics.

Originally published as Olympics 2016: Weightlifter Damon Kelly misses out on making third Games