There was no medal, or a sought-after meeting with Billy Connolly, but competing in the Commonwealth Games still exceeded everything weightlifter Georgi Black had hoped for.
The 24-year-old from Kilmarnock was competing in the women's 63kg competition at the Armadillo and posted a total score of 175kg, comprising 75kg in the snatch and then 100kg - a new Scottish record - in the clean and jerk. That eventually placed her in ninth place, with Ola Adesanmi from Nigeria taking gold, defending champion and compatriot Obioma Okoli silver, and Punam Yadav from India bronze.
"It was just mental, I can't even explain it," said the nine-time Scottish champion. "I've trained for it for years and years and, after my snatch, it felt like the fastest 10 minutes of my life. But it was more than I had hoped for, it was amazing."
With Prince Edward watching, Black was first to lift in the snatch. A Saltire dyed into her hair and imprinted on her dangly earrings, she strode confidently on to the stage. Cheeks puffed out, she hoisted her first attempt of 75kg high above her head without a hitch.
Her second lift of 77kg wasn't successful, before she emerged for a third at 79kg with some late words of encouragement from her coach Chick Hamilton and a quick burst of Biffy Clyro, fellow citizens of Kilmarnock, ringing in her ears. Again she couldn't give the home crowd what they wanted, the bar sailing right over her head to thud into the platform behind her.
"After the first one was in I thought I had it in the bag," added Black. "I've no idea what happened with the second one. It went in front. It never does that, not even in training."
The clean and jerk followed a 10-minute break and Black was up second. Her first attempt was at 94kg and she marched confidently on to the stage and lifted successfully. The green light came on again for her second attempt at 98kg and she then finished in style with a successful hoist of 100kg for a 175kg total.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article