By day she is a teacher at the Watooka Nursery who enjoys being with her pupils and when the bell rings to mark the end of the school day, apart from heading home to her daughter and husband, she ensures that she gets quality time with her favorite toys, heavy irons.
Dawn McCammon-Barker is a member of the Upper Demerara Barbell Club and did Linden and the rest of Guyana proud when she copped the 1st place prize at the Caribbean Powerlifting Championships in 2011.
She is now poised to defend her title between March 27 and April 1 in St. Thomas and has attracted the sponsorship of the Linden Branch of the Republic Bank Limited. Branch Manager Randolph Sears said that he was overly impressed with the woman’s records and was moved to recommend that his institution sponsor her airfare.
“I know for a fact that Linden has a lot of great athletes but I never knew of Dawn before and I was very impressed and thought that we had to do something to give her the opportunity to bring back that title to Guyana,” said Sears.
The international athlete was presented her cheque to the value of her airfare at the Linden Branch Office recently by Sears in the company of other senior staff. This has assured her participation in the championships at the end of this month.
According to McCammon-Barker, a team of approximately 14 is expected to participate in the championships to represent Guyana.
In 2011 when she won the Powerlifting championship in the Cayman Island at her very first international meet she weighed in at 247 pounds, squatted 502 lbs, dead lifted 402 lbs and bench pressed 242 lbs. This time she is going into the completion with the sole intention of retaining her title despite having lost approximately 10 lbs of body mass.
Since the death of her father-in-law Samuel Barker, former owner and key trainer of the UDBC, over a year ago Dawn has been undergoing rigorous training under the supervision of her husband and some key club members.
While everyone looks at her powerlifting achievements as a professional performance, she said, “I do it for fun, I love doing it just for the fun of it but I am bringing back that title to Guyana again. Last year was the first try for me and I am not letting it go, I am going for it again,” McCammon-Barker assured.
