Nadina Taharally and Roger Rogers will represent Guyana next week at the World Masters Classic Open Powerlifting Championships.
The championships will run from October 8-15 in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia.
According to a release from the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation (GAPLF), it is set to continue its hectic year of competing when it attends its third World Championship this year, an unprecedented feat.
In June, Carlos Petterson-Grifith attended the World Classic Open Powerlifting Championships in Malta while in August-September, Romeo Hunter and Dominic Tyrell represented the Golden Arrowhead at the World Classic & Equipped Sub-Junior & Junior Powerlifting Championships in Romania.
The athletes are now passing the baton to Taharally and Rogers who will not only be making their debuts but will also aim to build on the successful medal hauls of their colleagues at both the Malta and Romania championships.
Taharally will contest the Masters 1 76kg Class of the World Masters Women’s Classic Championships while Rogers will be aiming for glory in the Master 11 120kg category of the
World Masters Men’s Classic Championships.
GAPLF President Franklin Wilson, in extending best wishes to both athletes on behalf of his executive and the powerlifting fraternity in Guyana said: “We have been following your progress on the platform and we have no doubt that you will continue to do yourselves and Guyana proud on the world stage,” he said.
“Your commitment to putting in the hard work, we are sure, will bring the desired rewards when you hit the platform, and we wish you the best,” he added.
Wilson said the year has been a hectic one for the federation.
“We have also been able to run off our statutory competitions locally, the Intermediate and Masters as well as Raw Nationals and we will pull the curtains down on what will be the most hectic year for the sport to date in a calendar year, with Senior Nationals on December 10.” Both Taharally and Rogers have been training assiduously over the past year and have expressed confidence that they will do their utmost to maintain the rich tradition of powerlifting in Guyana.
Taharally commenced her career in powerlifting in 2015 and ever since has been a force to reckon with locally and regionally. Two years into her career, she made the cut to represent Guyana at the Regional level and did so on two occasions at the North American Powerlifting Championships in Orlando, Florida, once in Uruguay and once in Mexico.
Having missed out on competing at the Commonwealth Games in New Zealand last year due to visa issues, Taharally, a former bodybuilding, and Miss Best Legs winner as well as CrossFit competitor who placed third at the inaugural event in Guyana in 2015, says that this year will be a defining year in her short but very successful career.
Rogers, like Taharally, has enjoyed a short but successful career in the sport to date. His first competitive lift on the platform was in 2019 and his performance was so good that he made the national shortlist for 2020.
Despite sports across the board, locally and internationally being curtailed due to COVID-19, Rogers was competitive again in 2021 at the NAPF/Pan American championships in Orlando, Florida where he made his international debut, chalking up Pan Am squat and deadlift records in the process.
He too missed the Commonwealth Championships last year in New Zealand due to the late issuing of the visa.
However, visa issues will not affect the powerlifters this time around as both athletes have already obtained the necessary visas and are scheduled to wing out of Guyana Monday night for Mongolia.
