Five promising amateur weightlifters coached by Andrew Callender are hoping to do Barbados proud when they compete at the annual XXXIV Torneo Criollo International in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
Quontana Clarke, Daniel Griffith, Cicely Callender and Cagney Taitt are all competing on the international scene for the first time while 17-year-old Zagora Callender will enter her third global meet as they represent Barbados in five different weight categories in the clean and jerk and the snatch starting tomorrow October 17 and continuing to the 19th at the Angelo Berrios Diaz Complex.
Speaking with Barbados TODAY, Clarke explained that consistency would be the key in performing well in Puerto Rico.
“Weightlifting on a whole has been a mental experience so it was a lot of preparing your mind and mindset for what coach knows you are capable of doing. So, a lot of my preparation had to do with training consistently about six days a week. I was getting up at four in the morning and getting to the gym for five and trained as hard as possible during that period of time,” Clarke said.
As difficult as the snatch can be, Clarke who will be attempting 85kg in that category and 107 in the clean and jerk, said he now had a greater appreciation for the former.
Clarke and Daniel Griffith are the only two male competitors. Griffith who played football before taking up weightlifting said he was excited about the opportunity and was ready to compete.
Attempting 105kg in the snatch and 135kg in the clean and jerk, Griffith is hoping to improve on those categories and said, “I would like to think that I am ready but from what I have seen from the background of other competitions I know that things are going to change once I get there.”
Also hoping to improve in their weight categories is teenager Zagora Callender who will be attempting 63kg for the snatch and 75kg for the clean and jerk.
Callender said preparation had been going well since overcoming a mental block and even though not certain of what to expect competition-wise she would not underestimate anyone.
As the most experienced female on the team, Callender is hoping that her experiences in Europe, Colombia and most recently in Las Vegas at the World Youth Games would be sufficient to land her a place on the podium.
Meanwhile, Cicely Callender said she and most of her team members had been training consistently since May and were looking forward to representing Barbados for the first time.
Callender will attempt the 55kg category and said, “My focus is to perfect my cleans because that is one of my weak points.”
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb