‘London 2012 Weightlifting’ prepares for its first Test!
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) will deliver its ExCeL Sport Test Events over three weeks during November / December 2011. Branded as the ‘London Prepares' Weightlifting International Invitational - the Olympic Test Event will be held at ExCeL, London from 10 - 11 December 2011 (together with the Wrestling Test Event being held currently in an adjacent hall). This follows the Fencing and Taekwondo competitions that will be held in the same arena in previous weeks. Matthew Curtain, London 2012 Weightlifting Manager has reported that 48 athletes, 32 team officials, 10 international technical officials and the 2 technical delegates (representing 26 National Federations in total) have been invited by participate, all of whom will be provided with suitable accommodation, full board and internal transportation for the 5 nights whilst staying in the Olympic City. ‘Athletes are always the focus of our operations and therefore, it is only correct that the vast majority of our financial resources have been allocated to this important client group' said Mr. Curtain. ‘The level of interest received from National Federations was indeed overwhelming and as such, LOCOG was left with the arduous task of ranking athletes according to ability while also recognising the requirement of ensuring as many Great Britain athletes, of a suitable standard, are to be represented as possible' he continued. Accordingly, the invited National Federations are as follows: AUS, AUT, AZE, BLR, CAN, CHN, CYP, DEN, ESP, EST, FIN, FRA, GBR, GER, HUN, JPN, KAZ, MAS, NGR, NOR, POL, ROU, RUS, SWE, THA & USA. Of particular note, the Organising Committee awaits the participation of Ilya Ilyin (KAZ), 2008 Olympic Champion, ZHOU Lulu (CHN) 2011 World Champion, KANG Yue (CHN), 2010 & 2011 World Junior Champion and XIANG Yanmei (CHN) 2011 World Championships Silver Medallist. In line with its testing principles, the Weightlifting Test Event strategy will primarily focus on Field of Play operations, Technology delivery and Workforce functions. Men's 94kg & +105kg categories / Women's 69kg & +75kg categories will be contested over the weekend event. Great Britain will be represented by Peter Kirkbride (94kg), Sonny Webster (94kg), Joe Muskett (+105kg), Natasha Perdue (69kg), Zoe Smith (69kg), Tamás Fehér (Head Coach) and Dave Sawyer (Coach). The Test Event schedule can be downloaded here Athlete Entries - MEN, as at 23 November 2011 Athlete Entries - WOMEN, as at 23 November 2011
