The Guyana Weightlifting Association (GWA) received a shot in the arm yesterday after its top brass received a quantity of weightlifting equipment from its parent body, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).
The association received four complete sets (two for men and two for women) and two children’s bars which cost in the neighbourhood of $US12, 000.
This augurs well for the sport that has been dormant as of recent.
According to president of the GWA, Frank Tucker, the equipment, which weighs about 2000 pounds in totality, will help breathe new life into the Olympic sport.
“This should help with the sport getting more attention and getting more people involved,” he said yesterday at the Guyana Olympic Association’s (GOA) headquarters.
“We should be able to develop lifters who will be able to represent us overseas and so on, so this is a fillip for the sport. We definitely will be looking at schools and other organizations to find new blood coming up in weightlifting,” he added.
So when can sports enthusiasts look forward to a weightlifting competition?
Said Tucker: “Of course we would not have a competition right away because you have to get the lifters but I will be hoping in another three to four months we will be hosting a competition so we will be able to see the fruits of the sets that we have.”
Tucker thanked the executive members of the GWA, the GOA and the IWF.
He then singled out Deon Nurse as the person who was instrumental in getting the equipment cleared.
“These weights will be put to good use and we will see weightlifting on the upswing,” Tucker declared.
According to Wikipedia, weightlifting, also called Olympic-style weightlifting, is an athletic discipline in the modern Olympic programme in which the athlete attempts a maximum-weight single lift of a barbell loaded with weight plates.
The two competition lifts in order are the snatch and the clean and jerk. Each weightlifter receives three attempts in each, and the combined total of the highest two successful lifts determines the overall result within a bodyweight category. Bodyweight categories are different for women and men
