British Universities Championships...

OK, so as you can see it has been QUITE a while since I posted anything. Mostly because I haven't been weightlifting regularly since I've been at uni. It's been a bit on and off, and I haven't competed since 2011; that is until last Saturday!

I went to the British Universities Championships, because I've started training more regularly and was feeling strong. I also thought I could possibly qualify for the British Senior Championships if I got into the 58kg bodyweight class. So, the week leading up to the competition involved some serious cutting and dehydration. (I also lifted in Leeds University's 'Fittest Student' competition on Wednesday and came 3rd, but that drained me a bit!).

On Saturday I drove to Sheffield and weighed in at 12:30pm, at 57.2kg (phew!). My coach John from home came up to help me in the competition. I was pretty nervous as it was my first comp in 2 years, but I managed to lift well. I snatched 47kg, then failed 50kg, but got it on the 3rd attempt. I then clean and jerked 62kg, 65kg, and 67kg, giving me a total of 117kg (which is the exact amount I needed to qualify for the British Seniors!), and putting me in 2nd place :D

All in all a great day, and it made me realise how much I've missed competing. Now I just have to wait until July for the Seniors!

Northern Open, 13th November 2010

I got a lift there with a guy from my new gym, James Everett. I weighed in at 65.7! :O
I was competing against one other woman in my category, but there were 4 of us overall competing for the sinclair cash prize.
I lifted: Snatch - 43, 46, 48X
C&J - 55, 58, 61
Total - 107
I won my category and came 3rd on sinclair (which won me £50!!).
James also did very well, especially considering it was his first weightlifting comp!
As always, you can watch videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/zoraphina?feature=mhum

British Under 18s and Under 23s Weightlifting Championships 30 October 2010

So, I got up at 2am in order to catch a train at 3am, because I was told that weigh in would be at 8am in Birmingham. In fact, weigh in was not until 11:30am, so I got up gruellingly early and had a horrific train journey for no reason! However, I got there with plenty of time to watch the first group of men. Having not eaten or drunk for 24hours I was anxious to weigh in, and I made my category by 0.2kg! (I weighed in at 62.8kg) Then I stuffed my face :)

The women didn't start lifting until it was nearly 3pm (due to delays, and causing me to miss my train home!). There was no one in my category (of under 63kg under 18s) so all I had to do to win was lift at least one snatch and one clean and jerk. I snatched 43kg, 45kg, then failed 47kg. I clean and jerked 55kg, 57kg and 59kg, to total 104kg. I wasn't too unhappy with this considering I haven't trained properly in 5 weeks! And I got a nice trophy to take home out of it!
The competition didn't finish until 7:30pm, and I was lucky enough to get a lift with some lovely people heading back to Leeds, so I didn't get home until 9:30pm.

Check out my videos on http://www.youtube.com/zorophina

Next comp is in 2 weeks, near Halifax. Will keep you informed ;)

Update from Leeds

Hello all! It has been a while because I haven't done any weightlifting in over a month!! I moved to Leeds in September to start university, and have really struggled to find a gym, which was particularly depressing since the Commonwealth games have been on since I've been here and its sad to watch them all doing so well while I'm losing muscle by the day. My uni has no weightlifting facilities but I've just managed to join the weightlifting club at Leeds Met uni, and had my first training session yesterday. I arrived at the club to see Helen Jewell training, who was at the Commonwealth games the other week! Sadly I was not training with her and her coach, but with the rugby lads and weightlifters from Leeds Met. Their coach, Alex, seems very competent though and he had some good tips. I only lifted very light weights though as this was my first training session back in a while. I have the British Under 18s championships next Saturday so it is now a race to try to improve a bit by then!! I will let you know how it goes!

London and South East under 18s and under 23s Weightlifting Championships

I have just got back from the London and South East under 18s and under 23s Weightlifting Championships. I weighed in at 61.5kg (I lost 3kg in two and a half days!) so was in the under 63kg group, on my own! There were only 4 girls in the whole comp, and one was a guest so wasn't even competing!
I lifted:
 Snatch: 47X, 47, 50
 Clean and Jerk: 60, 63, 65X
 Total: 113
I was very pleased, as this is a new competition PB, and I won!! (By default, sadly, because I was the only one in my group!) And I got a shiny gold medal to add to the collection. All in all a really good day.

Congratulations also to Emily Godley for getting a new C&J PB of 97 (I think!?)

Have a look at my YouTube channel for my clean and jerk videos for this comp (my parents forgot to film the snatch!): http://www.youtube.com/user/zoraphina

New P.B.! At last...

So... having got back into training, after my exams, I got a new personal best: 65kg clean and jerk. I can now say I can C&J my own bodyweight. I am pleased, but I will only know I've made it when I can snatch my own bodyweight!

Since then training hasn't been great, but I now have a job next door to my gym so I have no excuse not to go!!

I have the London and South East under 18s and under 23s championships on 7th August. It will be almost exactly a year since my first ever comp, which was the same one at Crystal Palace, in which I lifted 35kg and 50kg. It is strange to think my total has gone up 30kg since then. And worrying because I know that will never happen again in one year!

I will let you know how it goes...

London and South East Spring Open

Me and my coach, John, left Lewes at 7am. I felt VERY ill (from not eating or drinking) so I slept the whole way. We met Holly and her dad there. I weighed in at 61.6kg, So I could have had breakfast after all!
The competition didn't go brilliantly. I felt good, but I lifted 1kg less than my total at the British Juniors and I DON'T like going down!! However, I worked out this was a better sinclair percentage (which also takes into account bodyweight: total(kg) / BW(kg) x 100) because I weighed a fair bit less.
Holly wasn't too pleased either. We were both expecting to do better. They also gave prizes according to sinclair instead of BW category because there weren't that many women, so neither of us received a prize :(
However, it was good fun, as I feel comfortable competing at Crystal Palace now, and although Zoe Smith and Emily Godley weren't competing they were there loading the bar for us and being supportive :)
You can see me and Holly's videos from the comp at http://www.youtube.com/user/zoraphina

Things started to look up yesterday, when I went to the gym with my old coach Rob and managed to lift a total of 112kg again! For the first time since April! It felt good to know that I haven't completely lost all my strength!