Weightlifting: African Junior Championship/Arabic Championship-Satisfactory result for Ferley |16 May 2007

One of the youngest weightlifters at the championship, Ferley, 15, competed in the 105-kg category and managed a fifth position in his category with a total lift of 232kg.

He also bettered his snatch record by 5 kilos from 100kg to 105kg and clean-and-jerked 127kg.

Ferley was accompanied by coach McDonald Henriette and Seychelles Weightlifting Association (SWA) chairman Robert Rose who attended the Weightlifting Federation of Africa (WFA) annual meeting and officiated at the championship.

According to SWA chairman, the championship was of a very good standard, competition-wise and organisation-wise.

 “The participants were very good and the level of competition was very high,” he told Sports Nation. “At his age, Dominic did well and I am very satisfied with his performance,” added Rose.

The gold medal in the 105-kg category was won by Libyan Ahmed Dawo with 314kg (snatch 141kg and clean-and-jerk 173kg),

Algerian Abdulhamid Maymoum won the silver medal with a total of 300kg (snatch 135kg and clean-and-jerk 165kg), while the bronze medal went to Ashraf Ammar of Tunisia with 282kg (snatch 131kg and clean-and-jerk 151kg).

Meanwhile, Clementina Agricole and Katsia Télémaque did not make the trip to Australia as planned to participate in the Commonwealth Junior Championship on account of a technical hiccup.

Still according to SWA chairman Rose, he was told that the competition was to take place in Darwin but had to address all correspondence to Brisbane. Therefore, the association booked weightlifters’ and coach’s airfares to Brisbane thinking that the competition had changed place. But it was only after he (Rose) had left for Libya that the association learned that the competition was still to take place in Darwin. Because of the distance between Darwin and Brisbane and the high cost, it was decided that the lifters would not take part in the Commonwealth Junior Championship.

Regarding the lack of competitions prior to the All-Africa Games and the Indian Ocean Islands Games, Mr Rose said that during the monthly tests, the lifters have to reach the different standards set in order to be selected for any international competition.

Local lifters are also expected to attend a training camp in South Africa, but it is worth noting that Janet Thélermont and Charles Siméon are already in overseas training camps in Mauritius and South Africa respectively.

R. D.