Newly-crowned Female Sports Personality of 2011, power lifter Dawn Barker says she is elated to win the award and it means a lot since she is from the mining town of Linden, but she wouldn’t be resting on her laurels.
“I am extremely overjoyed that I have accomplished this, especially as a Lindener, because many people say that Linden is depressed but me coming out of Linden and achieving this award shows that Linden has a lot to offer,” Barker said in an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport.
The Watooka Day Nursery School teacher, 31, who competed in the 84+ kg divisions, was the gold medalist at the fifth International Power Lifting/North American Power Lifting Federation championships in the Cayman Islands as well as the best lifter after she established new records in the squat 227.5kg (500 pounds) and dead lift 182.5kg (401 pounds) to record an overall total of 517kg.
Her next feat came in July at the NAPF Championships in Miami, Florida where she performed a squat of 237.5kg (522 pounds) and a dead lift of 192.5kg (423.5 pounds) to amass a total of 540kg.
These records are Commonwealth records.
The power lifting ‘Queen’ who lifted the award ahead of table tennis star Trenace Lowe and world-rated squash player Nicolette Fernandes with her record breaking feats last year, disclosed that she has plans to further increase her overall lifting poundage for 2012.
“I want to improve on my lifting overall but my biggest goal is to squat an excess of 600 pounds and to break the 500 pound dead lift barrier before the year is out,” said Barker.
Barker’s first competition for 2012 will be at the Caribbean Championships in St Thomas, USVI next month followed by the South American Open in Cali, Colombia in August and then the World Open Championships in November in Puerto Rico. She will also compete at the local Senior Nationals Championships in December.
The female sports personality of 2011 also told this publication that she is seeking sponsorship for the Caribbean Championships.
In the meantime, Barker thanked her husband and family members as well as her gym mates from the Upper Demerara Barbell Club, especially Colin ‘Mr Clean’ Chesney, Johnny Gravesande, Orin Alleyne, Godwin Edwards and Clint Duke for their continuing support and encouragement.
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