For more than 12 months, Snake Athletic's Jake Douglas thought "it was the right time" for an Olympic Weightlifting competition to be held in Tamworth.
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After initially planning to hold an event last year - before COVID-19 put an end to that - the gym held the Tamworth Open on Sunday.
Not only was the response by competitors and spectators alike positive but the results were equally so.
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There was a bunch of personal bests as competitors completed two separate competition lifts - snatch and clean and jerk.
Veronica Pearson just missed out on registering a qualifying lift for the World Masters but will have more chances to do so, Douglas said.
Blake Mammarella, who lifted a total of 269 kilograms, qualified for the AWF (Australian Weightlifting Federation) Senior Championships and Georgia Pryer, with a combined total of 148 kilograms, has locked in a spot at the Australian Open.
Mammarella will join Douglas - who qualified in March - at the championships in September.
"We're really lucky to have myself Blake going [to the AWF Senior Championships] and Georgia is knocking on the door," Douglas said.
"To have at least two of our squad competing is awesome considering we've only been a barbell club for a short amount of time [two years]."
As for Sunday's competition, Douglas said "it went really well".
"We had a lot more interest than we thought we would," he said.
"A bunch of spectators rocked up throughout the day and to have 30-odd competitors in a weightlifting event in a rural area was great.
"We had about seven or eight locals. We had competitors from Dubbo, Sydney, Newcastle, Coffs Harbour, Glen Innes - all around.
"That's the first time ever there's been an Olympic Weightlifting competition in Tamworth or in the North West that I know of. We just felt it was the right time.
"NSW Weightlifting Association came down and helped us run the event. It was just a great spectacle."
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