After numerous physio sessions, things for me are now back on track. I am once again running at full tilt and I’ve started lifting again. Although everything has been pretty much in straight lines, my knee feels strong and I have been comfortable doing everything.
This week I will try to mix it up a bit and venture into doing things in different directions. I have been very well behaved so far and listened to all the physio’s orders. Sportspeople are normally bad patients, and just want to speed things up to get back moving ASAP. But I don’t want any more setbacks!
Last week I took a short break for a trip up to Belfast to watch the girls compete in the Ulster open weightlifting competition. The girls were a little bit nervous, as this was their first ever lifting competition – but in my mind they had every chance to do us proud.
The day began with a weigh-in – after which the competitors usually eat a good bit since, a lot like boxers, they diet to reach their target weight. Luckily for the girls, they didn’t have to do any dieting to get into their weight categories, as our coach didn’t want them to be worrying needlessly about weight.
The competition proper didn’t get going until midday, starting with what was probably the funniest part of the day – when the girls were paraded and introduced to the audience. It was hilarious, and they were mortified!
After all that the lifting got underway with the snatch, which was followed by the clean and jerk. All the girls hit their personal bests, which was great. And Orla Brennan and Sinead Ryan were winners of gold medals in their weight categories (I’ll keep quiet about the fact that they were the only ones in their respective categories… oops!).
The 75kg category was the most competitive of the day, and Shannon Houston and Amy Davis walked away with silver and bronze respectively – an impressive achievement considering we haven’t been lifting for long.
But the real success of the competition was our coach Sami Dowling, who moved up a weight category and hit personal bests on his way to winning gold. It was great for him considering the fact that he was coaching the girls at the same time.
The more I experience different sports in Ireland, I become more disillusioned about attitudes to sport in this country. Outside of the traditional Gaelic games, soccer and rugby, there is very little support for other sports.
Olympic lifting should be the basis of any elite athlete’s training programme, and you would therefore imagine that there would be more people involved and supporting it as a sport. However, this is not the case, even though the small number involved in competitive weightlifting in Ireland are wonderful, fully dedicated and welcoming.
If we are to be more successful on the international sports scene, I think we need to take a look at the way in which we are funding, supporting and promoting different sports, especially compared to other countries not so far away.
But enough of my ranting. This week we will be finally back on the pitch, and I can’t wait! It seems like ages since I’ve held a rugby ball, and I’m looking forward to giving it my all.
Fiona Coghlan is an Irish International rugby player. Her column appears every fortnight in Metro Éireann
