On the afternoon of 9th October I attended the 94kg class men's weightlifting event. I knew nothing about weightlifting but had the good fortune to sit near Keisha from New Zealand, who was a former weightlifter herself. She was able to explain all the intricacies of the sport and was really friendly and helpful.
The event was interesting for me, as I had not realised how much pyschology was involved. As the end of each section (snatch, then clean & jerk) there was real gamesmanship with competitors raising their own weight in order to force an opponent to follow-on, and lift immediately after he had just finished. In turn, the response was to raise the weight more, until one of them gave in and actually attempted to lift the nominated weight. It was fascinating to watch.
The event was won by Samoan Faavae Faaliuli, but it was great to watch Scotland's Peter Kirkbride win silver. He leapt about and waved to the crowd, clearly enjoying himself and proud of his achievement. He was living for the moment and loving it. This was in marked contrast to Australia's Luke Adams, with whom I spoke after he won silver in the 20km walk in the morning. I asked him how he felt and he said that he was really disappointed. He was so close to getting the gold (he was just 3 seconds behind his team mate Jared Tallent) and yet hadn't been able to pull it off. He said he had given it everything he could, but it just wasn't enough. I felt really sorry for him, but wasn't sure how to respond. There's no point in saying that I would personally be thrilled to win a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, because of course I have no expectation of doing that. Luke Adams had expectations, and they were not met. So I cheerfully told him that I thought he was an inspiration to watch, that it was a great race and he had made Australia proud. I hope that helped, but if it did, his face didn't show it.
No comments:
Post a Comment