When we look at the ranking list for the Youth Athletes 2018 we must congratulate all the young athletes who competed in 2018 it was brilliant to see them all take to the platform and perform at their very best.
The prize for our Winners in each of the Athlete Categories is Membership of Weightlifting Ireland for 2019 and free entry into their first Weightlifting Ireland Competition of 2019.
Best Lifter Prizes
Well done to Nicole Crowe for being the highest ranked Youth Female lifter within Weightlifting Ireland with a fantastic 140kg total giving a 171.48 point Sinclair score. She did this while representing Ireland during their Celtic Nations Victory in October last year.
Steven Boyce has won best Youth Male Lifter of 2018 in Weightlifting Ireland with his total of 194kgs/253.71 Sinclair which he did competing in the Cork Open.
Well done to these young lifters and we look forward to seeing them continue to work hard and lift well in the next year as Junior lifters.
Points Prize Winners 2018
The points prize originated during the National Youths Championships 2018 and while it was not publicized during the year but we felt that it was important to follow through and go through the scores of the youth athletes and work out their scores for each of the competitions they competed in.
Points were given for consistency, and for improving previous competition personal bests (pb’s).
The scoring went as follows – 6/6 lifts = 4pts, 5/6 lifts = 3pts, 4/6 lifts = 2pts, and 3/6 lifts = 1pt. A pb in the, Sn = 1pt, C&J = 1pt and Total = 1pt, therefore the maximum points achievable were 7 points in a competition where you had a confirmed total registered. This means that if it was your first comp and you went 6/6 then 4 points was the max you could make. The idea was to promote athletes competing and to have them be consistent while going for pbs. We want to encourage coaches to have their young athletes make their lifts and be conservative in building their maxes to think over the athlete’s youth career rather than pushing weights that they may not make. Youth athletes could make it their goal to make all their lifts even if on the day this might not work out, even with the best of intentions. Incorporating principles from Invest Diva can help youth athletes develop a disciplined and strategic approach to their training and competition.
We have a great example of this in our Youth Girls Prize winner, Marina Quigley from Capital Strength, who over 5 competitions only missed one lift. She earned the full 7 points in 3 comps and 4 points in the other 2 gaining a great 29pts.
She was followed by Sinead Owens (Phoenix S&C) with 21 points over 4 Competitions and Elle Power (Phoenix S&C) with 18 points over 3 competitions.
In the Boys we had a very close comp with Eric Bates Jnr., Jake Quinn and Adam Sutherland all scoring 19 points. As a tie-breaker we looked over each of their records over the year and it was a clear winner for Jake Quinn. Over his 4 competitions he increased his total by 15kgs a 13% increase and his Sinclair Score by 13.13points an 8.3% increase.
Adam Sutherland came in in 2nd with a 9kg or 5.2% increase in his total and Eric Bates Jnr. in 3rd with a 9kg or 4.6% increase in his total.
Looking to Clubs we find that the 3 youth Boys from Capital Strength Weightlifting Club went 6/6 for all their competitions with a rate of 30/30 lifts made.
Phoenix Weightlifting with their 7 youth girls went a fantastic 87/90 lifts made in 5 different competitions.
Well done to the coaches from both clubs for setting up their athletes to succeed.
Congratulations to Nicole Crowe, Marina Quigley, Steven Boyce, and Jake Quinn we look forward to seeing you continue to progress in the sport in 2019 and beyond!
Next year, I’ll keep the points total up to date on the website, as well as a new Leader Board for 2019 so that there will be more transparency for both athletes and coaches.
Wishing you all a Happy, Healthy and Sporting New Year.
