Well well..here I am boys and girls! Straight back from Melbourne, fresh out of the Commonwealth, Oceania and South Pacific Weightlifting Championships held from on the 6th-9th of October.
RETROSPECT:
Thursday: Fresh out of what could've passed off as the most uncomfortable flight in my entire life, I landed at Melbourne International at 9am. Customs however, were just a bitch. I got off the plane and there were just hundreds of people queing up to get their passports and baggage checked (and quarantined)- half of these people coming from some part of Asia. And it was pretty scary to eventually see more Asians than Australians. It was like, everywhere you turned, you'd see a Chinese from Hong Kong, a native of Vietnam and a couple of Indians here and there. Might I add the when spoken loudly, Vietnamese is just about the most BLOODY irritating language I've ever heard. I was standing in line, and all I heard was ding-doing-dang-dong-dang for that agonizing one hour I stood in line. So by the time I get out, it's 10.30am and we're (coach Tan and I) greeted by our liaison and it's off to the motel to dump my stuff before heading to the competition/training venue. Normally, accomdations are given the titles of 'Athlete Village' but this was an exception. Rooms were nice and cosy with big squishy beds but boy, were the rooms bloody dusty. Not once did I see the chambermaid come in with a vacuum. God knows how long it's stayed that way.
So then it's off to my first and only training of the trip to get my body prepped up for the big competition on Saturday.
So I step into the training hall, get warmed up and everything and suddenly, the Samoan team comes in and the action gets started. Goodness, these guys meant business and it happened all so quickly. There I was, getting my snatches done and the lifters were finishing up their training with sets of back squats hitting slightly over 200kilos. It was really fun to watch but dizzying at the same time. As soon as I finished my snatches, I walked up to these guys and made friends with them. Boy, the pacific islanders are so friendly and warm, we just got off to a great start.
By the time I'm done with my entire workout, the next team comes in. This time, they were from the tiny island of Niue (pronounced new-ey) and they were ALL female superheavies. Some of them were so big that even their butts weighed more than me. The day pretty much ended off with a nice dinner consisting of an entire barbequed chicken and a quarter of a French loaf.
Friday: Started off the morning with a big shit in the toilet, leaving me feeling very much lighter. Lo and behold when I weighed myself later on, I was 82kilos, 1.8kilos lighter then when I landed the morning before. Then it was off to the competition hall for the womens' competitions and the men's 77kg category competition in the evening at 6.30pm. On average, there were breaks in between each session lasting for about 2 hours with a good 3 breaks. So what did I do? Take a 5 minute walk down to town and grab a bite to eat! The good thing about Melbourne, despite having so many freakin Asian people was that every which way you turned, there was always something good to eat. Before I knew it, I was back in the competition venue for the 77kg category session after alternate spectating and eating sessions. Had some nice 'zhi cha' dishes for lunch and dinner included a HUGE portion of chicken schnitzel; which got me worrying that I would've have put on weight past the allowed amount, thus disqualifying me from the session on Saturday afternoon. The 77kg category was insane. In the line-up was 21 year-old Yukio Peter from the tiny little island of Nauru which has a population of 100,000. According to Yukio, "everyone knows each other" and it's so small, you could drive round the entire island and cover it in 45 minutes. Yet, this country produced an Olympian with BIG clean and jerk of 202.5kg.
While everyone else was done, Yukio came out and snatched 142kilos with ease and I've got the files to prove it. It was a pity that he missed his next two attempts at 157kg. This guy was built like a tank. For someone a head shorter than me, he had thighs that were twice my size. Well, not literally but they were 31 inches. Mine? Only 28. When the time came for the Clean&Jerk, he made a strong opener with 180kilos only to shoot for the Commonwealth record of 195kg. Pity he missed his last two attempts at this weight though. Nonetheless, this guy was just about the nicest guy you could make friends with. Must be something with these islanders and making friends but hell, I enjoyed it. The only thing that broke my heart was when he said, "Hey, I got a souvenier from Singapore." And I was quite surprised he'd actually been to Singapore because that would have given us more to talk about, but before I could say anything he lifted up his shirt and there it was, a giagantic scar in the side of his abdomen. Jesus, this guy was stabbed in my f*cking country. And it happened that his friend lost his kidney to the same knife attack. All I could do was apologise for the shit he got while he was here and he laughed and he replied, "Hahaha..I was stupid, Remos went to the hospital, but I went back to hotel. Put hand on wound and blood still coming out. Scared the receptionist." Even with that, this guy was just strong for someone his size.
Saturday: Crunch time. The day of my competition. After the previous night's dinner, I was praying that my bodyweight didn't go up past 85kilos. Somehow God must've heard me and sounded the alarms for the call of nature to sound. So answered that call I did and I don't exactly wanna go into details of what was in the bowl but let's just say I weighed in at a very SAFE 82.2 kilograms. So when the competition got under way, I opted to open with a 103kg- a weight I'd been practicing as my opener for the past two weeks. Why did I have an opening weight lower than Yukio, a guy lighter than me? Simple reason because he'd been training since he was ten and that was 11 years solid training unlike the extremely low 2 and a half I'd only been receiving. And you guys have no idea how much it pisses me off everytime some Singaporean asks me, "Are you going to win?" I never fail to think to myself, wishing that these guys would do their homework, understanding the differences in situations between me and other lifters before asking such ridiculous questions.
Anyway, 103 was a really sweet success because I knew it was easy. So I moved up to 107kg where another easy success was made. When it came to the last Snatch, bam. 112kg was in the bag. In weightlifting, you only get 6 lifts, 3 in the Snatch, 3 in the C&J so if you'd made all 6 lifts, it would be what we would call- going 6-for-6 and so far, I'd made 3-for-3.
When the C&Js came, I opened with 125kg and the different thing about my jerk style is that I don't use a split jerk like the other lifters do. I use a very unorthodox squat-style jerk used among Chinese lifters. So when I went down in the receiving position in the jerk, the entire hall didn't know what got them. It was pretty much a surprise to them to see something which they had never seen before. And it felt reeeeally good to hear people going, "whooaaaa". That's just the reaction the squat jerk always gathers. I'd be posting up the videos when I get them!
So after 125, it was 133kg for my second attempt. Basically all my attempts were in the hands of good ol' Mr. Tan who had the craziest strategy to make me do 141kg in my last C&J attempt- a weight I had not touched for an entire 5 months because of injury. His explanation?"If you don't lift 141 now, you will never know what it's like to touch even 140kg again."
I came out onto the platform, and my heart was really racing. My face and composure didn't show it, but I was praying for a good lift to boost my morale and give me the confidence I needed for that 141kg attempt. I went up to the platform and everyone was just giving me their encouragement, "Come on, Sherwin!", "Let's go Sherwin!". I made a strong clean but I missed the jerk. Man, was it a stunner. I walked back into the warm-up room and as expected, he said, "You will do 141."
To be honest, I was thinking "SHIT." Was I scared? Of couse I was but I knew I had to be strong. Both in mind and body. But it was most important to be strong at heart, because that was what I had to do. Once my name had been called, there I was, walking up to the platform with Mr. Tan slapping my back with both hands saying, "Go!" and it as if surreally, I felt like I couldn't let anybody down.
Everyone was cheering me on and I knew it was do or die. I bowed to the crowd and total silence fell. It was scary. It was so silent, it almost sounded like everyone was holding their breath. I made the clean and it felt strong. I jerked it and I held it there, right at the bottom and it came up..and up and it was a success. It was just crazy..everyone was on their feet and the feeling within me was indescribable because I knew there was so much joy, I had left an impact with everyone watching me and I was sure, memories were going to be kept. I then looked at Mr. Tan in the eye and I cried, letting a tear drop, knowing that I'd fought one hell of a fight. The weight I lifted might not have been as high as any of the other lifters around me who have been training longer than I did but nothing could take away the value and the experience that both I and the spectators had gone through. And there everyone was in the warm-up room, shaking my hand saying I lifted well and I was pretty damn sure I'd come back next year to give them more shows.
When I packed up and came out to the competition hall, I was faced with so many people shaking my hand, giving me the greatest amount of encouragement I had ever received, even after I'd finished.
And how did I celebrate? By going out to Pizza Hut and having an entire BBQ Super Supreme Pizza with Garlic Bread and a half a dozen BBQ chicken wings and a pepsi of course! And there I was, finishing off the day, having dinner in Chinatown with a Heineken, popping by an internet cafe along the way to reply emails and talking to friends I dearly missed.
Went back to the motel and chatted till 12am with Yukio and friends.
Sunday: The flight home. Well, let's just stop here for a moment and talk about the Sunday flight in my next entry as well as getting the photos and videos loaded up. Cheers everyone.
