Mercy Brown and Louis Hampton-Jones lift their way to national success in Coventry - The Coventry Observer

Mercy Brown and Louis Hampton-Jones lift their way to national success in Coventry

Coventry Editorial 14th Jun, 2016 Updated: 28th Oct, 2016   0

AN ACTION packed British Weight Lifting & Powerlifting Championships saw multiple British record holder Mercy Brown taste success again at the Ricoh Arena on Sunday.

The current English champion was competing in the 75kg+ category and equaled her current British record, set at last year’s European Junior Championships, by lifting 104kg.

Brown missed her third lift at 108kg and then opened the clean and jerk with 126kg, just 3kg short of her own current British senior record. Two failed attempts at 135kg followed, resulting in a title-winning total of 230kg, just 1kg short of her current British record.

There was a tough battle for the men’s 69kg title between Louis Hampton-Jones and current British and English Champion Chris Freebury, which saw Freebury edge ahead by 3kg in the snatch with a best lift of 118kg.




Going into the clean and jerk, both attempted to lift 142kg on the bar for their third lift, with Hampton-Jones securing a good lift but Freebury’s failed lift handed Hampton-Jones his first British Senior title on bodyweight, with both athletes achieving totals of 257kg.

There was a surprise result in the men’s 62kg as reigning British Champion and British record holder Gareth Evans failed to score a total, having missed out on three attempts at 120kg snatch. Atlas Weightlifting Club’s Haroon Siraj won with a total of 222kg.


In the women’s 58kg category, reigning British Champion Shila Panjavi achieved a best snatch lift of 74kg in her second attempt, before lifting 101kg in the clean and jerk to retain her title with a total of 175kg. Second place went to Laura Hewitt with a total of 164kg and Jessica Perrin finished in third.

2015 British Championships silver medallist Amber Sheppard and 2016 English Champion Sarah Glanvill failed to secure a total, as both athletes missed all three snatch lifts.

The women’s 75kg category was won by Louise Webster with a total of 183kg, with Kilmarnock’s Georgia Black finishing in second place with a total of 179kg. The men’s 56kg was won by HAWFC’s Seth Casidsid with a total of 182kg.

Saturday’s morning session opened with Commonwealth Youth Games gold medallist Catrin Jones made a positive start in her bid to win a first British title as she cleared her third attempt at 62kg.

Jones then lifted 77kg in the clean and jerk and although two further attempts at 82kg and 83kg were unsucessful, her total of 139kg was enough to take the title.

In the women’s 53kg, Fraer Morrow secured her first senior title with lifts of 68kg (snatch) and 90kg (clean and jerk) to secure a winning total of 158kg. As runner up at the 2016 Exertrain English Championships, Morrow bettered all three results from January’s competition, lifting 4kg more in both lifts to beat her English Championships’ total by 8kg.

Second place was secured by Bournemouth University’s Noorin Gulam, who recently debuted on the international stage and the European Senior Weightlifting Championships in April.

The men’s competition then followed with the 77kg category, where Brunel’s Kristian McPhee beat Ivan Mihal with a total of 250kg.

The men’s 85kg was won by Cathal Byrd with a total of 284kg, while Brunel’s Lewis Ridett narrowly missed out on joint first place, having lifted a total of 283kg and just 1kg less than Byrd.

The men’s 105kg offered another close-fought battle with both Adam Fedorciow and Jacob Fast tied in first place after the snatch with lifts of 138kg, but it was Fedorciow who came out on top with a clean and jerk of 174kg, 2kg more than Fast, to secure his first British title with a total of 312kg.

In the men’s 105+kg category, Andrew Ruegg went head-to-head with Wales’ Darius Jokarzadeh and it was Ruegg who came on top with a total of 322kg.

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