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Hitting above their weight: girls showcase weightlifting skills

Feb 20, 2018 | 9:00 AM

Weightlifting might seem like a male-dominated sport, but it was the girls who were celebrating on Family Day as they lifted far heavier weights than the boys.

Monday marked the first day of competition in the 2018 Saskatchewan Winter Games, hosted in the Battlefords. Weightlifting events took over the Dekker Centre as boys 50 kg and 56 kg and girls 44 kg and 48 kg categories competed. Many competitors were well under the maximum limits for their weight classes, but lifted well above their own weights. Saskatoon weightlifter Isabella Brown, 14, only weighed in at 39.9 kg, but that didn’t stop her from blowing away the competition for both genders. 

Brown lifted a 43 kg snatch and a 52 kg clean and jerk, competing in the 44 kg weight category. According to the judges, Brown is lifting more compared to her bodyweight than anyone in the province. She beat the scores of the top finisher in the weight class above her, and also bested both male categories.  

Kari Adane, 13, from Parkland Valley, won gold in the 48 kg category. She managed to snatch 28 kg and gave Brown a run for her money in the clean and jerk, putting up 45 kg.

Winners were determined by a combination of both best weights for an overall total. Each athlete had an initial lift and two more chances to beat it.

Brown won gold in her category with a total score of 95. Ten-year-old Isabella Barclay, of Saskatoon, won silver with a 19 kg snatch and a clean and jerk of 26 kg for a 45-point total. Bronze went to 12-year-old Olesja Fa, of Rivers West, with a 19 kg snatch and a 25 kg clean and jerk for a total of 44.

Adane took home gold in the 48 kg category with 73. Mila Lux was the only other girl in the category, and took silver with a 16 kg snatch and a 23 kg clean and jerk for a total of 39.

On the boys side Prairie Central’s lone competitor in the 50 kg category, Kaden Hein, left the rest of the males in the dust. The 13-year-old weighed in at 45.2 kg and put up a 28 kg snatch to go with a 43 kg clean and jerk for a total score of 71. He was the only boy to come close to lifting his bodyweight, and took the gold easily. The silver went to Deacon Gubbe, 11, of team Rivers West, with a snatch of 17 kg and a clean and jerk of 22 kg for a total of 39. Twelve-year-old Nathan Bertram, of South East, won bronze with a snatch of 10 kg and a clean and jerk of 26 kg for a 36 point total.

 

 

greg.higgins@jpbg.ca

On Twitter @realgreghiggins