New Year’s resolutions often contain a challenge to shed those Christmas pounds, and for weightlifters competing at the English Championships cutting weight and getting their final weeks of training right is essential if they’re going to be successful at one of the top 2 events in the competition calendar.
Olympic Weightlifting is on the rise with 55 medals won internationally for GB since 2014 and increasing popularity in gyms and Crossfit boxes nationally, this year’s championships registered record breaking entry’s with over 170 weightlifters qualifying.
Lifters from the Bournemouth University club qualified in force with 8 lifters having a chance to clinch medals. The weekend started well, with an early start for Noorin Gulam coming back from injury to pick up a silver medal in the women’s 53kg category, swiftly followed by a Bronze for Head Coach Stuart Martin in the Men’s 105kg category.
On Sunday, Nam Ahmadi picked up silver in the men’s 69kg after a difficult weight cut of nearly 10% his bodyweight followed by another silver medal for Kathleen Spears in the Women’s 90kg Category. The last group of the weekend was the men’s 85kg where a fantastic performance from Lewis Ridett earned him the Gold medal, beating his opponents convincingly and laying down a strong marker ahead of his campaign to qualify for the commonwealth games in Gold Coast 2017.
Head Coach, Stuart Martin said: “It’s great to see the team out there competing with the best in the country, over the last 3 years we have grown our numbers at national competitions every comp and it is testament to the environment the guys create for each other week in and week out that has got us to this point."
