BEIJING, Aug 19: Legislator-athlete Viktors Scerbatihs on Tuesday blamed his heavy workload in the Latvian parliament for missing out on a gold medal at the Olympics.

The 33-year-old, 145kg parliamentarian settled for the bronze medal as the over-105kg contest ended with German Matthias Steiner winning the gold and Russia’s Evgeny Chigishev the silver.

“Being a member of parliament and a weightlifter at the same time is almost incompatible. You can’t combine these two ways of living, it’s either you lift or you work for parliament,” he told reporters.

World champion Scerbatihs came into the Games as hot favourite to inherit the super-heavyweight title vacated by the absent defending champion and world record holder Hossein Rezazadeh of Iran, considered the strongest man on the planet.

After winning the silver medal in Athens four years ago, the Latvian had gone from strength to strength, eventually winning the world championship last year.

He managed 448kg on Tuesday, after converting only once for 242kg in the clean and jerk.

Scerbatihs, who is single, is in two minds on what to do next.

“I don’t even have a girlfriend, while Chigishev has already created a family,” he said.—AFP