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Powerlifters boycott camp before 2020 Olympics Qualifiers

Posted by Marie Curtis on
Powerlifters boycott camp before 2020 Olympics Qualifiers

The camp of Powerlifters is in disarray since some athletes have sworn to not report back to camp before the Powerlifting World Cup billed for Abuja that is qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The hope of Nigeria winning medals at the 2020 Olympics has gone on to dwindle every day with the crisis rocking the Powelifting Federation of Nigeria when some board members are at daggers drawn with the President of PFN, Queen Oboh.

The Technical Director, Joy Mayaki in the company of some board members on Tuesday who met and appealed to the athletes were told in clear terms that they’re going to not move to Abuja if their grouses aren’t addressed by the board.

Reeling out reasons for his or her decision to boycott training and pack up their training center located inside the National Stadium in Lagos, the protesting powerlifters said the selection of Abuja for the training camp wasn’t well thought out by the board as all the equipment needed for training are situated in Lagos.

They described the selection of Abuja as an effort to be penny-wise and pounds foolish as all the facilities like accommodations and training equipment are readily available in Lagos.

The athletes who were visibly angry wondered why former Nigerian International and Head Coach of the team, Aare Feyisetan who has been with the team for quite 11 years was unceremoniously replaced on the eve of a serious tournament.

According to them, some members of the federation are trying to sow seeds of discord amongst athletes. They wondered why junior athletes who were invited for trials before the competition were exempted from participating at the planet Championship.

They queried why these junior athletes who are meant to require over when the aging athletes retire were invited for trials if the federation had no decide to feature them within the competition.

In her response, the board through the Technical Director, Joy Mayaki said provisions for the young athletes weren’t captured within the allow the competition, hence the choice to drop all.

She also said some junior athletes are presently camped in Abuja and catered for by the federation in spite of her stance that no provisions were made for them since the athletes queried her about the fate of these stranded in Lagos.

On Monday, during a bid to force the athletes to abandon the camp in Lagos, equipment in Lagos were removed in the dark and brought to Abuja.

Despite directives from the Federal Ministry of Sports through the Secretary of the federation, Dapo Akinyele, to report back to camp on Monday for preparation for the planet championship, the athletes expected to take part in the competition billed for Feb 5th to 7th in Abuja have resolved to boycott the camp.

The Secretary advised them to report back to camp with immediate effect or risk being overlooked of the championship.

General

The history of powerlifting

Posted by Marie Curtis on
The history of powerlifting

It all started with the International Powerlifting Federation. the game originated from Weightlifting where the “odd lifts” then became recognized and put into a special format.

The first “genuine” National meet for powerlifting was held in 1964 at the York Barbell Company within the US and therefore the progression began from there within the USA and UK then began to develop in other countries.

In the UK, the first powerlifting federation was BAWLA – British Amateur Weightlifting Association and from that emerged one man to start out the start of the powerlifting revolution within the UK. David Carter.

David Carter left BAWLA and started a replacement federation named British Powerlifting Organization – an “equipped” federation that allowed lifters to wear single-ply equipment and was connected with the planet Powerlifting Congress – who we are affiliated with in the present. He transformed powerlifting within the UK taking it new levels and provided lifts with choice of which federation they lifted in and decided to make a supportive and inspiring environment which is what we learned from him. During this point, other UK federations began to emerge from Davis Carter’s first steps.

The British Powerlifting Organization then made a choice to maneuver far-away from the WPC and that they joined the planet Powerlifting Federation. Thereupon move, the lifters who wanted to remain with the BPC formed a replacement federation by the name of the BPC – British Powerlifting Congress.

The sport had another great breakthrough with the couple Brian and Vanessa Batcheldor heading to make the competitions spectacular and hosted in venues like the NEC and the BIC in Bournemouth. Vanessa Batcheldor was one of the simplest female powerlifters we had squatting more than 200kg at 60kg in bodyweight which remains a record nowadays.

Since then British Powerlifting Union was formed, along with the planet Powerlifting Congress as our administration. It had the stress of bringing back the element of “run by powerlifters, for powerlifters” and the element of support that might be lost at elite levels. Our aim is to progress the game and supply opportunity at the amateur level during structured thanks to encouraging new lifters to the game and supply a grass roots platform in order to develop from to national and international competition at the elite level.