In contrast to the nation’s Olympic medal drought, Guyana’s strong men and women continue to excel at the Caribbean Powerlifting Championships.
Gladiators, Karel Mars, Earwyn Smith and Andrea Smith will all return home with hardware from St Croix following the weeklong championship in the US Virgin Island.
Mars squatted, bench pressed and dead lifted his way to a gold medal in the 105kg Open category while Smith (Earwyn) earned a silver in the 93kg men’s Open division. His namesake, despite suffering a back injury did enough to snare a bronze in the women’s 63kg class.
En route to the gold medal on Thursday, Mars obliterated the Caribbean squat and bench press records. His lifts were (squat) 40kg, 212.5kg in the bench press and he dead lifted 312.5kg to amass a total of 856.5 kg. Both records were set by Ramon Burgos of Puerto Rico in 2014.
For Smith’s lifts, his squat was 142.5kg, bench press 252.5kg and deadlift 272.5kg for a total of 667.5kg. Nelson Vieira of Puerto Rico took gold, while Lawrence Belfon of Trinidad and Tobago copped the bronze.
Smith, who had her sights set on rewriting the record books in the squat and dead lifts, placed third after suffering a back injury but still managed to grab the last podium spot even after having to scale down her lifts in the women’s 63kg open division.
On Tuesday, she squatted 135kg in her first attempt but missed her last two squats. After being forced to lift conservatively, Smith dead lifted 132.5kg and bench pressed 67.5kg.
The contingent is scheduled to return tonight at 9:30. (Emmerson Campbell)
