The British Senior's weightlifting championships at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, provided the final opportunity for British competitors to meet the qualifying criteria for their respective national teams for Glasgow 2014.
The competition delivered some surprisingly disappointing results with regards to young Scottish hopefuls who required success in Coventry to meet the qualifying criteria for this summer's Commonwealth Games.
Jane Armour, Callum Downie and Colette Will of Team Cavanagh all failed to register lifts in the snatch and exited the competition. Colette had a previous wrist injury and also had an arm injury last week running up to the weekend in Coventry. The timing of the British Seniors did not come at an ideal time for the lady from the Glasgow club but it is fair to say that this young woman is going to make headline news in future competitions. Colette said: "I have so many mixed emotions at the moment but plain and simple I'm heartbroken."
Team Cavanagh coach, Ray Cavanagh spoke of his club's success at the weekend. He said: "Graeme Kane and Dale Cree had a good battle with each other in the 85g class with both lifting the same total of 267kg but Dale was lighter on bodyweight." Kane and Cree finished 3rd and 4th with Haris Ansari finishing 7th in the 69kg class. All have met the qualifying criteria for Glasgow 2014.
Andy Benton and Jamie McMaster, also of Team Cavanagh,participated in their first British Seniors competition. The newcomers had reason to celebrate, finishing on 225kg and 233kg.These guys are certainly ones to watch out for with them achieving equal and new bests in the 77kg class.
England is certainly hitting the headlines after a successful weekend competition. Talented 15 year old English lass Rebeka Tiler smashed records at the competition by taking top place in the 69kg class. Rebeka is the youngest competitor to win a senior's competition. The Yorkshire girl's competition total of 205kg would have also been more than suffice to win gold in the 75+kg.
England are in the fruitful situation that they have an abundance of competitors to choose from for the final selection which will be made later this month by the Commonwealth Games committee. It would certainly add to the weightlifting spectacular if Rebeka Tiler was a Team England participant. Females only started participating at such competitive levels in weightlifting at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 yet their progress tells more about their success than the short 14 year old timescale.
With the weekend behind us we now await team selection news later this month.
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