PBs at European Youth Championships for the British Lifters

Day 1

In Clean & Jerk in the 56kg class, Dylan Scott, showed true grit to get up out of the clean and jerk with a lift of 105kg to add 3kg to his own British & Scottish Youth record. However Scott’s snatch was disappointing, easily getting 80kg as his opener but then losing 85kg behind on his second attempt, over correcting for this in his 3rd attempt he missed 85kg in front.  Also in the 56kg class, Shamsher Shergill in his first major International Championships, got all 3 snatches with a best of 70kg, he then got his first C&J of 95kg, but missed his next 2 attempts of 100kg.

Hannah Powell started confidently in the 44kg class, opening on her PB of 48kg and then holding 51kg in her 2nd attempt.  She was very close to getting 52kg with her 3rd attempt.  Then in the C&J she opened on a new personal best, cleaning it easily she caught her chin on the way up with the bar and despite finishing the jerk she could not hold it.  With only four lifters in the class, Powell was forced to follow herself so had little time to recover from the knock she had taken in her first lift and despite jerking her next two attempts could not hold them.  Bitter disappointment for an athlete who has worked hard over the summer and was capable of so much more on the day.

Day 2

Craig Carfray started shakily missing his first snatch of 83kg; however there was then no stopping him, with good snatches of 83kg and 87kg, and Clean & Jerks of 107kg, 112kg and 115kg to improve his total PB by 6kg.   Carfray finished a very creditable 8th overall in the 62kg category, and is another in the line of Scottish athletes to come out of the Kilmarnock Weightlifting Club coached by Charlie Hamilton

Next out was Sonny Webster.  Webster has just recovered to full fitness following an injury which kept him out of much of 2008 and the early part of 2009.  He got his first snatch of 92 kg, and then missed 95kg behind twice, just failing to hold them.  Webster then came out and comfortably clean & jerked 110kg, he then went to 114kg, just got out of the clean and jerked it easily.  With that in mind he raised the bar to 115kg, his clean was much stronger and he then jerked the weight easily.  A very confident performance from an athlete who has had improved his competition PB by 15kg and has shown the patience to fully rehab from his injury. As the competition progressed Webster got stronger and could easily have opened with his final C&J.

Tomorrow Dale Cree, Michael Sheard and Zoe Smith go for Great Britain with Joshua Farghally lifting on Friday.

 Full results can be found here

Following 2 extended training camps over the summer at the World Class Lifting High Performance Centre in Leeds, the Great Britain Youth team has now moved out to Eilat, Israel ahead of the competition which starts on Tuesday.

The time spent at the HPC has ranged from 20 days for the more experienced athletes to 3 days for those athletes selected for the team who are not WCL Programme.  At the training camps the athletes had the opportunity to learn from the senior athletes in the squad, receive technical coaching from Tamas Feher, practical nutritional support and physio support.  At both camps the athletes stayed in self-catering accommodation and were responsible for feeding themselves under guidance from Martin MacDonald the WCL nutritionist.  They also had their hydration levels monitored to ensure that they were not training when dehydrated and to help with making weight strategies.