Mauritius International Open Weightlifting Championships 2022   Three local lifters compete in Mauritius |24 February 2022

Romantha Larue

Only three of the four Seychellois weightlifters who were earmarked to take part in the Mauritius International Open Weightlifting Championships 2022 left Seychelles yesterday morning for Mauritius.

Seychelles is being represented in the Mauritius International Open Weightlifting Championships 2022, which also serves as a qualification event for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games, by three female lifters ‒ Ruby Malvina (59kg category), Romantha Larue (87kg category) and Clementina Agricole (59kg category).

A fourth lifter, Rick Confiance, could not make the trip despite being in good shape. This is because he is not vaccinated against Covid-19.

According to the championship’s regulations, all athletes and accompanying coaches/support personnel must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 – an individual is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after having received two doses of any World Health Organisation (WHO) Emergency Use Listing (EUL) vaccines. Proof of vaccination must be produced for verification by the organising committee prior to participation.

Since head coach William Dixie could not make the trip for health reasons, the three female lifters are being accompanied by coaches MacDonald Henriette and Pierre Dixie.

Seychelles Weightlifting Association chairman Robert Rose is also part of the delegation and will be officiating in the championship.

The Mauritius International Open Weightlifting Championships is the final qualification event for Africa and athletes who wish to compete in the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games have to earn qualification following a revision of the participation criteria.

The weight categories are as follows: men: 55kg, 61kg, 67kg, 73kg, 81kg, 96kg, 109kg, and +109kg, and women: 49kg, 55kg, 59kg, 64kg, 71kg, 76kg, 87kg, and +87kg.

Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded in each bodyweight category for both men and women in the total only.

Other than Seychellois and Mauritians, lifters from Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Lesotho, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Pakistan will be in Mauritius competing for places at the Commonwealth Games.

Apart from the Mauritius International Open Weightlifting Championships, weightlifters hoping to qualify for the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham could compete in Derby, England during the last week of January, and still can take part in competitions in Auckland (New Zealand), Montreal (Canada) and Singapore on February 26 and 27.

The five competitions ‒ one in each continental federation ‒ have been added to the schedule because of difficulties during the Covid-19 pandemic and are open to any Commonwealth Games hopefuls regardless of where they live or which nation or territory they represent.

It is worth noting that many athletes were unable to compete in last year’s Commonwealth Championships, which were moved from Nauru to Singapore because of the Covid-19 pandemic and eventually took place in a non-Commonwealth nation for the first time, running concurrently with the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) World Championships this month in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.

Teams from Oceania and Africa were unable to travel to Uzbekistan, which is why the extra events have been added and opened up to all.

Since the last qualification competition will end on February 27, its means the ranking period has to be extended from its original end date of February 14, 2022.

The top eight in the rankings join the outright winners of the Commonwealth Championships, England's host nation selections, and bipartite invitations in fields of 11 and 12 for the 16 weight categories.

The total athlete quota of 180 places is exactly 50 per cent more than the number allocated to weightlifting for Paris 2024 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The weightlifting competition will run from July 30 to August 3 at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Gerard Govinden