News

Weightlifting exhibition in observance of Olympic Day

The Guyana Amateur Weightlifting Association (GAWA) in association with the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) will observe Olympic Day in Guyana with a weightlifting exhibition Saturday. Lifters such as Sean Cozier, who has represented this country in numerous international competitions, along with recently crowned Schoolboys and Novices best lifter Antoine Gordon and Orwayne Cozier amongst others will be demonstrating the various lifts in the exhibition. The observance will be under the theme "Discover the Olympic movement through weightlifting" a sport which has been a part of the modern Olympic games since the first games were held back in 1896. Lifters from Guyana participated in the Games and has been a part of same from 1948 to 1956, took a break in 1960, but returned in 1964 and ‘68 before taking another sabbatical and returning in 2004, with the best performance being that of Martin Dias who competed in the 1964 Olympic Games (56 kg, 8th place 100.0, 102.5, 132.5, total

GOSPER – PRAISE FOR LONDON 2012

TRANSFORMATION OF LONDON'S OLYMPIC PARK- UNMATCHED Australian Olympic official Kevan Gosper has heaped praise on London's Olympic preparations saying the transformation of a wasteland in the city's east is unmatched anywhere in Europe. Gosper told journalists at the opening of a world press briefing "the regeneration of an industrial wasteland at Stratford is very exciting and will be a lasting legacy for the British people. There has been nothing like it in Europe" he said. Stratford is the home of the Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Village and eight sporting venues including basketball, swimming, water polo, cycling velodrome, BMX and hockey. The Main Press Centre (MPC) and International Broadcast Centre (IBC) are also part of the complex. Gosper said London 2012 would be remembered for its iconic venues including tennis at Wimbledon, archery at Lord's Cricket Ground and beach volleyball at the Horse Guards Parade near Buckingham Palace. The Chief Executive of the London Organising Committee, Paul Deighton, told the group the Games are ahead of schedule and on budget. He said many of the venues in the Olympic Park were permanent "for people to use for the next fifty years". He said the Stratford would be a new London park just like the other great parks in the city". Over half of the athletes living in the Village will be able to walk to their competition venues. After the Games the Village will provide almost three thousand units where people can live in "affordable homes". People are being encouraged to cycle or walk to the events on special tracks called "greenways" Gosper said like so many others he was surprised by the achievements of the British athletes at the 2008 Beijing Games which he said was due to the generous funding of the British Government. He expected the home team to do well in 2012 because "Britain over time had introduced the majority of sports on the Olympic program". "It's not only a city which bailed the IOC out in 1908 and particularly in 1948 so soon after World War II, but it's a country and a city which has brought sport into the Olympic movement" he said.

COUNTDOWN CLOCK MARKS FINAL 100-DAY PUSH FOR TOKYO 2016

Exactly 100 days before Tokyo 2016 hopes to be given the honour of hosting the most compact, athlete-focused and sustainable Olympic and Paralympic Games in history, the Bid today unveiled a Countdown Clock in the heart of Japan's vibrant capital city. Measuring 1.8 m in height and 1.5m across, the clock was unveiled at the popular Tokyo International Forum, a state-of-the-art convention centre located in the city centre which is also a proposed Tokyo 2016 venue for weightlifting. With the popular site attracting around 4 million visitors annually, huge numbers of passionate supporters of Tokyo 2016 will be able to feel the excitement as the clock counts down. The Countdown Clock unveiling ceremony was attended by elite Japanese athletes - 2004 and 2008 Olympic gold medallist wrestler Saori Yoshida and weightlifting Olympian Hiromi Miyake.Hiromi Miyake is an extraordinary example of the 100-year Olympic legacy model that Tokyo 2016 hopes to establish for the Olympic Movement. Her father, Yoshiyuki Miyake, was a weightlifting bronze medallist at Mexico City 1968 and her uncle, Yoshinobu Miyake, was a two-time gold medallist in the sport through his success at the 1964 and 1968 Games. Hiromi Miyake said: "The Tokyo International Forum is a spectacular venue for Weightlifting, so it would be a dream for me to compete here during Tokyo 2016. This venue is wonderfully accessible, even to my house north of Tokyo, so I am personally very impressed with the compactness of Tokyo 2016 venue plan. I hope to realise a Tokyo 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games that would make the athletes, coaches and related staff truly

85 year-old weightlifter Maurice Crow honoured

1111 New Zealand Olympians will be awarded uniquely numbered Olympic pins this week as the project to name, number and order the men and women who have represented New Zealand at the world's greatest sporting event is completed. The Olympians also receive a commemorative certificate signed by IOC President Jacques Rogg. Marking the conclusion of the four-year long project and commemorating Olympic Week 2009 an Olympians Wall of Honour has been unveiled at the Olympic Museum in Wellington. In total, 580 of the 1111 New Zealand Olympians or members of their family will be present at one of the seventeen functions being held around New Zealand this week. Of the 1111 Olympians, only nine are yet to be located. 86 year-old Harold Nelson who represented New Zealand in athletics (5,000m and 10,000m) at the London Olympic Games is New Zealand's oldest living Olympian. He was a member of the seven-strong team that travelled by ship to the 1948 Games. Three members of the London team are still living. 84-year old Ngaire Galloway (nee Lane, swimming) and 85 year-old Maurice Crow (weightlifting). Their pins will be numbered 52(Crow), 56 (Galloway) and 57 (Nelson). Crow (born 26.05.1924) started in 56 kg in 1948 Olympics. He was ranked 8th by 272.5 kg (77.5 kg press, 85 kg snatch, 110 kg clean and jerk) Olympic Day today (23 June) marks 115 years since the founding of the modern Olympic Games by Pierre de Coubertin and is a day on which communities around the world celebrate the Olympic Movement in a spirit of excellence, friendship and respect. The full list of Olympians by number can be viewed at www.olympic.org.nz and are ordered alphabetically by

9th Senior and 8th Junior GCC Weightlifting Championships

The 9th Senior and 8th Junior GCC Weightlifting Championships is hosted by the Emirates Weightlifting Federation under the leadership of His Excellence Sheikh Sultan Bin Mejren who is also the incumbent President of the Asian Weightlifting Federation, slated on 1st- 6th of July 2009 in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. It will be legible only to all male athletes across the six countries in GCC; Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. We have 64 confirmed participants according to the final entries submitted by the delegates. The competition will be held at the Tennis Court of Fujairah while the accommodation will be at SIGI Hotel Resort. A high level of organization is expected to be set during the competition as the host country will be using the IWF information and Technology System which will be operated and managed by the IWF IT experts in cooperation with the Emirates Weightlifting Federation team and the Organizing Committee. The Championship will be held in accordance to the IWF rules while the International Referees from neighboring countries will be officiating the said championships. The competition will start on the 2nd of July wherein the Ruler of Fujairah Emirate will be present to honor the Opening and Awarding Ceremony together with AWF President Sheikh Sultan Bin

U.K. – 8 sports K.O

After the crisis hit, though, a £50 million shortfall forced U.K. Sport to cut back, employing what it calls its "no-compromise" principle: Only those sports viewed most likely to yield medals would get full funding. The policy means that while the overall budget for London 2012 is slightly larger than for Beijing 2008, eight sports -- fencing, handball, shooting, table tennis, volleyball, water polo, weightlifting and wrestling -- are having to make do with budgets as small as one-quarter of what they had for the last Olympics. "We have to prioritize," says John Steele, chief executive of U.K. Sport. "If you try to please everybody, you'll fail on all