Turkey's Taner Sagir broke two weightlifting Olympic records Thursday night to win the gold medal in the men's 77kg category and his country's third gold of the competition at the Athens Games.

Athens champion album: Turkish Taner, men's 77kg weightlifting

The 19-year-old set Olympic records in the snatch (172.5kg) and the total (375kg) to finish ahead of world record holders Sergey Filimonov of Kazakhstan and Oleg Perepetchenov of Russia, who took the silver and bronze medals respectively.

Sagir, the European champion, also improved his three junior world records.

"I came to Athens for the Olympic Games and all of a sudden I became a gold medallist," Sagir said. "I am extremely happy. It's amazing."

Filimonov, the silver medallist, also expressed the satisfaction over his performance.

"I am very pleased with the medal," he said. "Everything went well."

The shock of the event was the failure of double Olympic champion Zhan Xugang of China in his three snatch attempts.

Greece's Victor Mitrou, silver medallist in Sydney, finished fifth on bodyweight difference behind Turkey's Reyan Ababacioglu.

From the men's and women's competitions at the Nikaia Olympic Weightlifting Hall, China now has four gold medals, Turkey three, Thailand and Ukraine one each.

Results of men's 77kg weightlifting

1. Taner Sagir, Turkey, 375kg (172.5/202.5)

2. Sergey Filimonov,Kazakhstan, 365 (170/195)

3. Oleg Perepetchenov, Russia, 365 (170/195)

4. Reyhan Arabacioglu, Turkey, 360 (165/195)

5. Viktor Mitrou, Greece, 360 (160/200)

6. Mohammad Hossein Barkhah, Iran, 357.5 (160/197.5)

7. Attila Feri, Hungary, 355 (155/200)

8. Ivan Stoitsov, Bulgaria, 355 (155/200)