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Shewdass, a Golden Boy – Manager Livan
– becomes first Caribbean Sub-Junior World Champ
By Franklin Wilson
The reality of becoming Guyana and the Caribbean’s first Sub-Junior powerlifting champion following his gold medal at the World Juniors & Sub-Juniors Men’s Championships taking place Killeen, Texas, USA, has not begin to sink in quite yet.
Berbician, Gumendra Shewdass inked his name in the history books of Guyana when he won the overall gold medal in the 53kg category toppling American Dalton La Coe who was leading him {Shewdass} going into the final of the three lifts, Deadlift.
Following the Squat and Bench Press, Shewdass (Squat 180.0kg & Bench Press 90.0kg) was trailing La Coe (Squat 182.5kg & Bench Press 105.0kg). But excellent and strategic guidance from Manager Denroy Livan and a high level of discipline from Shewdass saw the young Guyanese pulling out all the stops to emerge the victor.
The Golden Boy Gumendra Shewdass and Manager Denroy Livan.
His best Deadlift of 205.0kg was enough to land him gold in this lift along with the overall winning total of 475.0kg. La Coe’s best effort in the Deadlift was 165.0kg which was achieved on his first attempt. He did attempt 192.5kg but failed twice. His silver medal Total after winning gold in the Squat (182.5kg) and Bench Press (105.0kg) was 452.5kg.
Shewdass has joined elite company emulating Guyana’s first Masters Champion Winston ‘Little Master’ Stoby (74kg Masters2 Category) who cantered to the World title last October also in Killen, Texas winning gold and smashing the Deadlift record in the process. Guyana has also dominated the competition at the Caribbean level for some years now.
Speaking with Kaieteur Sport, Livan expressed delight at Shewdass’ achievement noting that the feeling was “nostalgic”.
“I’ve been to several competitions before in this same capacity with more seasoned lifters, the likes of multiple Caribbean Champion Randolph Morgan and World Masters Champion Winston Stoby. However, this one was different because I was handling a lifter that is not as exposed at this level of competition”.
Livan, who is also the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation (GAPF) Public Relations Officer and Organising Secretary, stated that Shewdass, who hails from the Corentyne was relying primarily on his decisions.
“So my calls were critical and had to be spot on”… we went into the competition riding on the waves of an impressive Pan-American tour, a few missed opportunities and suddenly we found ourselves facing the possibility of being placed second to American lifter Dalton La Coe”.
At this juncture, Livan explained that Shewdas was beginning to panic a bit but given the fact that the Deadlift is one of his strong areas and they had two attempts remaining, “We had to employ tactics that would cause La Coe to chase after us, and that he did to his own detriment”.
“The plan worked, young Shewdas listened to my every instruction and held his composure and the result tells the world that Guyana got herself a GOLDEN BOY”.
Livan is of the view that efforts should be made to have proper and moderns systems in place in order for more champions to come to the fore reminding that Guyana is pregnant with talent.
“As a young administrator in this sport I recognize that we have the potential to perform on the world stage but hard work must be done in order for this to happen. We need to put systems in place to have similar conditions exist at home so that our lifters can develop to the level where we turn up and shine anywhere”. The successful duo is expected to return home today.
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