Year of consolidation and new heights for Powerlifting

Jan 04, 2018 Sports

By Franklin Wilson
The year 2017 has been one of consolidation for the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation (GAPLF) with the body executing all four of its local competitions, attending and excelling at the overseas level whilst outdoing itself with the projected outreach programmes it had set.

RAW Nationals Overall Winners!
Lisa Oudit and Vijai Rahim display their trophies.

The year also saw the body, under the presidency of former national athlete Ed Caesar, complete numerous fundraising and novelty events as the body sought to fulfill its mandate on and off the platform.
Undoubtedly, the high point of the year has to be the historic performance of Team Guyana (12 athletes 4 officials) at the 16th Annual NAPF/FESUPO Pan-American Powerlifting Championships; 15th Annual NAPF North American Regional Powerlifting Championships and 32nd Annual FESUPO South American Powerlifting Championships in Orlando, Florida, USA in early July where a record total of 33 medals (19 gold 9 silver 5 bronze) were captured while a number of new records were set.
Secretary of the federation, Andrea Smith reflected on a year that showcased the rich talent the sport has to offer through athletes that are world class, both male and female.
“The year 2017 has been a productive year for the federation; our calendar included a combination of local and international competitions, fundraising and novelty activities, and social outreach activities. We executed more outreach activities than we had initially projected. Additional outreach exercises were executed with the Guyana Prison Service, the University of Guyana and youth representatives from Lethem, PYARG (President’s Youth Award Programme).”
The successful local competitions that were held were the Novice, Intermediate, Raw Nationals and Senior Nationals and were all deemed, successful.
“The successful elements at these competitions were a resuscitated partnership with Banks DIH Limited, recognition award presented to another long time partner Fitness Express, coordinating with the Georgetown Princess Ramada Hotel & Princess Casino to host our senior championships as well as hosting a Referee’s Clinic prior to our marquee event.
Our federation was also able to collaborate with our sister federation in Trinidad and Tobago to have Mr. Gabre Mc Tair, IPF Category 2 Referee be the facilitator of our Referee’s Clinic and be the Head Judge at seniors.”
Expanding on the body’s Social Outreach, Smith informed that a special event was held in recognition of International Women’s Day under the Theme, ‘Women in Sport’. She said that for the first time, the Federation executed such an initiative in recognition of the efforts of its past and present Female athletes and it was well received.
“We hosted a breakfast for our female athletes, facilitated an Online Opinion Poll and coordinated an expose in the local print media, all aimed at honoring and showcasing our female athletes.”

Carlos Petterson deadlifts 330kg in Orlando USA, new National Junior and Open records.

The Orlando history making experience
Apart from raking in a record 33 medals, Guyana also captured three Team Championships Awards: First Place Team Equipped Men’s Open Title – Pan and South America Division; First Place Team Equipped Women’s Open Title – Pan and South American Division; Third Place Equipped Men’s Open Title – NAPF, Pan American and South American Division.
Team Guyana also achieved a number of new standards:
1. Guyana’s first Masters 1 Female competitor, Ms. Nadina Taharaly
2. The establishment of new NAPF, Pan America, South American and Caribbean Records, by the following athletes in their individual categories: Demitri Chan – Pan/South American, Romario Gonsalves – Pan/South American, Carlos Petterson – NAPF, John Edwards – NAPF, Britny Mack – Pan American & South American and Andrea Smith – Caribbean.
Additionally, there were an increased number of athletes performing in the Classic (Raw) Division; an increased number of junior participants and a significant increase in the number of female participants.
Administrative advancement
Smith noted that in this area, the federation has been improving constantly to the extent that there is now an active digitised athlete’s database for the first time.
“We have standardised automated/on-line registration for all our local competitions, we have also optimised the process of online payment for same. We have established an active online repository/library of information specific to powerlifting, located on our official facebook page, while we have also increased our proficiency in coordinating with our IPF counterpart through improved communications and prompt information exchange/feedback on unfolding administrative matters as well as prompt decisive action on mandatory operations e.g. renewal of subscription fees; submission of nominations and such like.”
Touching on the issue of expansion of the sport beyond the confines of the city, Smith shared: “There has been great success in expanding the sport beyond the confines of the city, though not in the traditional way of hosting an ‘out-of-town’ competition.
We opted not to go the way of ‘out of town’ competitions due to sporadic technical support received during the course of the year in hosting these competitions as well as limited voluntary assistance by athletes themselves (both of which the executive recognizes are critical components to the success of any competition).

Future Stars! From right, Romario Gonsalves, Teneisha Toney, Brintey Mack and Demetri Chan.

Instead however, the federation embarked on ‘live-streaming’ of competitions through our coordination with Sans Sports. Viewership of the last two competitions has been recorded as far as North America, Canada & England. Live streaming of these competitions was initiated by and is actively coordinated by Martin Webster. As a consequence, viewership of our official facebook page has also increased.”
Female participation remains steady and continues to grow incrementally, Smith stated pointing out that approximately 93% of the federation’s female athletes compete in Classic (RAW).
“We have limited equipped female participants and even fewer compete in both divisions.
Overall, the federation remains enthused by their courage and displayed dynamism on and off the platform.”
Smith, on behalf of President Caesar, the executive and athletes extends best wishes to all its sponsors/partners and looks forward to an even better year in terms of overall development of the sport.