By Emmerson Campbell
Jamie McDonald is not your average powerlifting champion. He is a businessman and probably a shrewd one at that.
Young Mc Donald, the owner of Fitness Express, is the newly-crowned 66kgs men’s overall champion having won the division on Sunday at the Junior/Novices Powerlifting Championships in Berbice.
Fitness Express is one of Guyana’s leading sports supplements and fitness gear suppliers.
In an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport, Mc Donald emphasized the need for more corporate support for the sport.
According to Mc Donald, the sport of powerlifting has done Guyana proud time and time again and, he suggests that more government and corporate support was needed to take the country’s powerlifters to the next level.
“The powerlifting federation has been doing well in the last few years – people like Dawn Barker, my trainer Randolph Morgan and ‘Big John’ (John Edwards) have done Guyana proud and although it is not a very popular sport, I think we need a little more corporate support. Fitness Express has supported powerlifting since we started two years ago but there is only so much we can do because we are a small company,” said McDonald.
Barker is the reigning female Sports Personality of the Year after she won a gold medal competing in the 84+ kg division last March at the fifth International Powerlifting/North American Powerlifting Federation championships in the Cayman Islands.
While there Barker established new records in the squat (227.5kg) and deadlift (182.5kg) 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 and deadlifted 192.5kg to amass a total of 540kg. These are all new Commonwealth records.
Morgan, the runner-up male Sports Personality of the Year, is the three-time Caribbean Championships winner in the 83kgs division.
He also holds Caribbean and Commonwealth records in the bench press, the squat and the deadlift. Morgan was also selected to represent Guyana at the Arnold Classic and the South American Championships but lack of funding prevented him from taking part.
Edwards won the Men’s Open title, the Men’s Master’s 120 kg and overall Master’s title at the Caribbean Championships as well as a bronze medal at the World Masters Championship in St Catherine, Canada last October.
‘Big John,’ who is also an executive member of the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation (GAPF) had reiterated in a Stabroek Sport publication last year, that the sport of powerlifting needs more corporate support.
He had suggested that the federation would be hosting a string of fundraisers to help offset its financial obligations.
Edwards had also highlighted that the sport needs more awareness.
This year, the GAPF will be doing as much as possible to create more exposure for powerlifting.
McDonald, meanwhile, said he plans on continuing to support powerlifting while furthering his own career in the sport.
“Fitness Express will continue to support powerlifting as much as we can. I will also be going onto Intermediate this year and if I do ok I will do Seniors and we will see how that goes. I really don’t have big expectations but I will do the best that I can do.
Mc Donald has managed the rare feat by an athlete of winning the first tournament he has entered.
“I am happy with my first competition. I am happy that I got the weights that I set out for myself so I can’t complain,” said the smiling McDonald.
McDonald, who said he trains at the GMR&SC gym, became the Men’s 66kgs overall Novices champion after he squatted 175kgs, bench pressed 102.5kgs and deadlifted 190kgs.
Though it was his first competition it certainly won’t be his last and who knows, maybe with just the right support from government and the corporate community the sky may just be the limit for the country’s top powerlifters, Mc Donald included.
