Georgia Cameron, pictured with coaches Raf (L) and Mirek (R) Korkowski, won two weightlifting gold medals at the 2021 Canadian Junior Nationals. (Georgia Cameron)

By Dan Marshall

Heavyweight

Nanaimo-trained weightlifter earns double gold at Canadian nationals

Apr 30, 2021 | 4:23 PM

NANAIMO — A change in scenery and routine hasn’t deterred a locally trained weightlifter from her march towards some lofty goals.

Georgia Cameron won two gold medals at the recent Canadian Junior Nationals and in the process she qualified for the Junior Pan American Games.

The 20-year-old who trains with Nanaimo’s Hercules Weightlifting had personal best lifts in her most important competition.

“I ended up making all of my six lifts, I had I would say the best performance of my lifting career so far. I snatched 74 kilos and clean and jerked 92 kilos, so I totalled 166 kilos.”

Weightlifting is made up of two main disciplines, the snatch and clean and jerk. The snatch involves one fluid movement to lift the bar above the head, while the clean and jerk involves two movements featuring a pause with the bar near the shoulders.

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The competition was done live via Zoom and Cameron competed from her garage in Victoria.

She said she could see a scoreboard during the event which allowed her to follow which lifts the other athletes had executed successfully.

“You can hear the announcer and it sounds like a typical live competition. Everything felt pretty normal it’s just the location was different.”

Cameron’s Junior National results set the stage for her first ever international competition. The Junior Pan American Games will be held in Manizales, Colombia in early June.

The plan is for the event to be held live and in person with Cameron and the other Canadians who have qualified staying in a hotel and training together.

The field hasn’t been fully set but her latest success has Cameron confident she can post competitive results.

“I’m right in the mix, it’s going to be held after the Junior World Championships so there is going to be a different amount of lifters, I’m not sure who will be making the trip to both.”

Cameron has been weightlifting since she was 14.

She started by training close to home in the south Island but once she made the decision to try to compete internationally the UVic student wanted to work with Hercules coaches Mirek and Raf Korkowski in Nanaimo.

“They’re known across Canada for being some of the top coaches across the country so it was a no brainer, I wanted to take my training to the next level.”

2021 will be Cameron’s final year as a junior age weightlifter.

She has her competition plans laid out which include the Junior Commonwealth Games in Singapore in October.

Cameron will also be eligible to participate in the Canadian Senior Championships in July in Toronto.

“Whether it’s going to the Pan American Championships senior level, Commonwealth Games, senior world championships, those are all goals of mine in the future.”

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dan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @danmarshall77