Last month, athletes from the university's powerlifting club competed at the British Powerlifting Junior Nationals in Ashington. Over the course of the 3 day event that took place between the 22nd and 24th October, many of our powerlifters managed to secure medals across different classes and disciplines.
This included current women's captain Hannah Matson securing third for total and first for deadlift in the under 57kgs class, whilst club president Abdul Butt claimed bronze in the under 66kgs bench press as well as a bronze medal overall. In the women's bench press, Tara Tattan-Birch also claimed a bronze in the under 69kgs category. There were also brilliant efforts from Cyrus Khine and Mahin Zafar who both competed in the under 93kgs class finishing fourth and fifth, and second and third, for total and squat respectively. The clubs current social secretary Jessica Davies only started the sport this year and is already competing at national level. Despite combating illness during the event, Jessica still managed to put up a very strong total. Congratulations to all of our current students who competed in the event. Most of our athletes could be seen wearing custom singlets made for the club by their sponsors, A7.
We were also pleased to see many of our alumni putting in strong performances, including previous club vice-president Ibrahim Dridi who achieved a bronze in the under 83kgs deadlift, and former under 57kg deadlift world record holder Amy Viner who came first in the class by total, as well as deadlift. You can view the results from the whole of the competition here.
Our representation at these British Junior Nationals highlights the huge improvements that our lifters are continuing to make, and puts the club in a brilliant position to secure a first place team finish at the University Nationals in the spring. The next competition for a lot of our lifters will be the UniChamps in April which are likely to be the last ever held by British Powerlifting due to the likely inclusion of the sport in the BUCS programme before the end of the academic year. The majority of the rest of our lifters will be next competing at the North Midlands universities regional competition in December, where they will compete for a qualifying total for entry into the aforementioned UniChamps in the spring.
We wish the club well on their continued success, and offer congratulations to the club and our powerlifters on their performance at the Junior Nationals.
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Posted on Wednesday 3rd November 2021