VietNamNet Bridge - Stephan Tupurov, a former world weightlifting champion, has sent his retirement application to the Committee for Sports and Physical Training.

Coach Stephan Tupurov (right)

Previously, the Bulgarian coach refused to train weightlifter Hoang Anh Tuan, who won a silver medal for Vietnam at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

A senior official of the Committee for Sports and Physical Training, Do Dinh Khang, said after the coach requested to stop training Hoang Anh Tuan, the committee arrange another job for him but the coach said the new job was inappropriate. If the committee couldn’t arrange another suitable job for him, he would quit.

As the Vietnamese agency could not immediately arrange a good job for the coach, it granted a one month holiday to Tupurov. Khang said the coach is a “treasure” so the committee will try to keep him.

Stephan Tupurov is the former European and World weightlifting champion who was named in the Guinness Book of World Records for lifting three times his weight. His contract signed with Vietnam will expire on December 31, 2008.

The national weightlifting team is now headed by coach Pham Danh Ton and the national young weightlifting team is managed by a Chinese coach.

(Source: Dat Viet)