When the dust settled at this year’s Raw Championships on Sunday at the Critchlow Labour College, Vijai Rahim, ‘Big’ John Edwards, Nadina Taharally, Romario Gonsalves and Tineisha Toney took home the marquee titles.
Rahim, of the Hard Core Barbell Gym, continued his winning ways by capturing the Best Lifter (Open Title) with a total of 602.5kg and Wilks total of 482.722.
In the Junior and Sub Junior Category, Romario Gonsalves of Life Gym captured the Best Lifter Title with a total of 462.5kg and a wilks total of 410.144 after dispatching of a field of 8 other competitors in the Open category with Sohail Hussain of Buddy’s Gym and Navendra Tamessar of Total Fitness being his closest rivals with totals of 432.5kg and 422.5kg respectively.
The Masters Division was dominated by the injured Edwards of Space Gym who managed to overcome his biggest rival, Farouk Abdool of Hard Core Gym with a massive 30kg increase in his final dead lift attempt of 272.5kg to finish with a total of 720kg and wilks total of 418.89.
This performance also earned him a gold medal in the Men’s 120kg Open division.
The Women’s Junior Division was won by Toney of Life Gym who made light work of her gym mates, Britney Mack and Nessa Bhagwandin to capture the Best Lifter title. Toney finished with a total of 292.5kg and wilks total of 343.19. Mack and Bhagwandin were the winners in their respective weight classes.
In the Women’s Open Division, Toney maintained her dominant ways as she made light work of a field of seven other lifters to secure the Best Lifter Title.
Taharally maintained her winning ways as she captured the Female Masters Division Best Lifter Title after narrowly missing the Open Best Lifter Title.
Taharally of Interline Fitness ended with a total of 315kg and wilks total of 334.30. This was enough to also give her the 72kg Open Female First Place.
In excess of 40 gladiators competed in the format of the sport that requires less performance-enhancing attire and guarantees more of a level playing field for all athletes.
Sunday’s event was arguably the largest local competition on the powerlifting calendar with the likelihood of eclipsing the Senior Nationals slated for November.
