A young Athabasca weightlifter walked away with a pair of medals from this weekend’s provincial championship in Calgary.
Aashna Mann, who is only 14, took home gold in the youth 63 kilogram class along with silver in the junior 63 kilogram weight class at the Alberta Youth and Junior Provincial Weightlifting Championships last Saturday at the competition held at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Athabasca Weightlifting Club coach Michael Mountford was there to watch Mann establish four new personal best lifts at the event on her way to achieving a 57 kilogram lift total.
Mann started the competition by lifting a personal best of 22 kilograms in the snatch.
Mann then moved up to 25 kilogram for her second lift, but she missed on that attempt due to a press out
However, she was successful at the same weight in her third lift.
Some of Mann’s inexperience showed through in the clean and jerk portion, when she dropped the bar holding 32 kilograms too soon after performing the split in the jerk.
Despite some nerves, Mann was able to jerked the 32 kilogram weight overhead successfully on her second attempt, this time ensuring she did her three steps to align her feet with the weigh held overhead.
Mann successfully cleaned 35 kilograms on her final attempt, but jerked the weight slight in front which resulted in a no lift as she pressed the weight overhead.
Mountford was pleased to see Mann do so well, while also disappointed that his three other athletes that qualified weren’t able to attend.
