Guyana’s most successful indoor sport, powerlifting got a timely shot in the arm from the Ministry of Sport yesterday.
During a ceremony at the ministry’s Main Street office, Minister of Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony handed over a quantity of weight equipment worth approximately $6m to the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation (GAPF).
Yesterday’s presentation came three days prior to the GAPF’s Novices Championship at the National Gymnasium.
“The Minister delivered on a promise made two years ago due to our progress out of the country. Today is a culmination of that progress” said president of the federation, Peter Green.
Green noted that the three sets of powerlifting equipment which includes three full competition platforms (for squat, deadlift and bench press) and digital scales were sourced from “Eleiko, a Swedish firm which is the best in the world.”
The GAPF head thanked Dr. Anthony for delivering on his promise then pointed out that the new certified equipment will be used as its arsenal in the bidding war for international championships.
“This will enable me to have more impact when I go to Canada in December to bid for the Commonwealth Cham-pionships to come to Guyana in the next two years.
This is what is used by the world lifters and the world record holders.”
Green then disclosed that the equipment will be strictly used for sanctioned competitions. According to him on Sunday “One of the sets will be set up so that the newbies will get an instant feel of the type of equipment that is used on the international stage.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony mentioned that the GAPF is one of the few associations that have earned lots of medals and has put Guyana on the map in terms of sport.
The minister highlighted that since gifting the first set of equipment to the federation in 2010, “We have seen an exponential growth in powerlifting.” He added that “Over the past years we have seen many champions emerging from Guyana, we have seen a resurgence of the sport and we were extremely pleased how the federation was able to achieve and grow the sport in such a short period of time with relatively little investment.”
Dr. Anthony then jokingly stated that “We expect that now that we have given you three more sets, what you used to do with one, we expect three times more”.
On a more serious note however, the minister disclosed that he would like to see more local and international competitions being staged here. (Emmerson Campbell)
