Sunday 25 April 2010

The British Junior (Under 20) Weightlifting Championships

I woke up feeling OK (considering it was 4am!), and so happy that my emergency sports massage the evening before had sorted out my hamstring injury which I had obtained through fencing! 

We left Lewes at 5am(!!) and arrived at Lilleshall national sports centre at 9am. I then had to weigh in: 64.6kg which put me in the 63-69kg category with 2 other girls. 

The warm up went OK, so I started on 45kg snatch, which went fine. Then 48kg which I failed - it was too far forward and I almost threw it off the platform! So I took 48kg again and got it. 
Then I started the clean and jerk on 57kg, which was fine. Then 60kg which the judges said I failed, but looked fine to everyone else!! So I took 60kg again and got it. 

So I ended up with a total of 108kg, which put me in second place. I was a little disappointed, as I was only 5kg off winning, which I could have done if I hadn't failed two lifts. I was annoyed because the total which the girl who won had put on her entry form was 80kg, which is significantly less than she actually had, which fooled me into thinking I stood a chance of winning in the 69kg bodyweight category. If I had known the truth I would have gone in the 63kg category, and won it!!

Even so, it was a good day. I overcame a lot of the fears I had last time, thanks to reading Steve Backley's book. I also came home with a MASSIVE silver cup (see picture above).

Zoe Smith was there, even though she wasn't competing, and she filmed my lifts (well, actually, she missed half of them!) which you can see on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/zoraphina

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Quick Update...

On Monday, I had a brilliant training session. I got a 112kg total for the second time and I was feeling great, then today I had my last session  before the comp and it went appallingly. Only got 105kg total, and dropped the bar... a lot!

Last night Zoe Smith was on the BBC program Olympic Dreams! She looked great! I suggest you watch it on iPlayer!

This evening I went fencing, when I should have gone to bed because I've been feeling really run down this week, and I pulled my hamstring! 3 days before my big competition! Now I'm icing it, trying to get it back to normal for Saturday! Will let you know...

Sunday 18 April 2010

Training with Zoe Smith!

On Monday Rob (coach 2) and I were driven to Kent by John (coach 1!) where we spent a couple of hours training with Zoe Smith! The British champ! She's a real inspiration. She's 15 and can lift more than men twice her age! To give you an idea of how strong she is - I can C&J 62.5kg and she can C&J 110kg!! I learnt a lot from watching her and she was very encouraging. She is off to Spain in a couple of weeks for ANOTHER international competition, but she is still coming to the British Juniors next week to watch and cheer everyone else on! While training with her I managed to snatch 50kg again, and got a total of 110kg.

The rest of training this week hasn't been quite as successful. My totals haven't been very high, and I only have 2 training sessions until the British Junior Championships next Saturday! Will let you know how it goes!

Tuesday 6 April 2010

Quick Update...

In the last week I have had some good improvements. On 30th March I got a new total of 110kg (S-47.5, C&J-62.5), then my next training session went pretty badly and I only reached 102kg total. However, yesterday I got a new total of 112kg! I snatched 50kg (but it was a bit dodgy!) and clean and jerked 62. I'm feeling very pleased about this :D