Weightlifting

Yesterday we took the coastal road to Tipasa, a coastal town in the general direction where both weightlifting and rowing are taking place. Tipasa is, at first look, sort of an Algerian version of Margate. Since the temperature here is now well over forty degrees - no kidding - most Algerians were on the beach, especially because it was 'Saturday' here.

It took a while for us to locate the weightlifting hall in a town called Bou-Ismael, but fortunately I bumped into most helpful wrestler Darryn Anthony, pictured below. After the usual infrastructure questions and answers (the food and accommodation's fine, venue's up to standard) Darryn quickly gave me a crash course in a few aspects of competitive weightlifting for me to get a basic idea of what was going on.

It was sad to see top weightlifter Babalwa Ndeleni go out early in the competition (see below). It seems there's a whole lot more to weightlifting than just two pieces of heavy iron and strong arms; and as is the case with all sport - as I've come to learn during my sojourn here at the All Africa Games - there's a whole lot of 'behind the scenes' strategy and tactic going into winning medals in the highly competitive world of international sport.

The conversation, inevitably, turned to doping, as weightlifting is a prime candidate for drug use to enhance performance. In the course of our discussion Darryn told me an interesting story: Passing one of the coaches of a competing team in the corridor, the latter turned to him and said: "I can see you're clean". Wow, what a compliment, coming from the opposition. Has he been tested at the Games? Indeed, and, of course, came through squeeky clean.

 

 

Next on was William Ainslie, taking part in the +105kg category. William is huge, there's no other description for him. He looks like he could lift a ten ton truck, no problem. You don't want to arm wrestle him, and you DON'T want to fool around with his girlfriend. His three excellent lifts however didn't ensure him a medal in the face of severe competition from Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt and Cameroon.

* Today was also the final day of the weightlifting competition, and seems the star of the show was Portia Vries, who goes home with two silver and a bronze.

Further note: I'm hoping to load a video of William's performance here if I can get the technicalities right, which should be a first for an All Africa Games I think, and probably for Algeria too.