The annual Gripstrength Kettle Bell Competition will be held for the first time at The Nanaimo Curling Club. Nearly 40 athletes are expected to compete. (Nanaimo Kettle Bell Club)

By Dan Marshall

Getting a Lift

New venue for 2023 Gripstrength Kettle Bell Competition

Sep 22, 2023 | 3:41 PM

NANAIMO — The seventh annual Gripstrength Kettle Bell Competition is poised to be the biggest ever with nearly 40 lifters scheduled to attend.

Competitors are coming from Nanaimo, around the province and even the US.

Co-organizer and lifter Rachel Roberrtson said the event continues to evolve.

“We’ve just kept building on what we’re doing and learning from our own mistakes, learning where to improve it and make it better. You kind of learn the value of your community and how they can support you.”

For the first time ever Gripstrength will be held at the Nanaimo Curling Club.

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Athletes will perform their lifts in person or online starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday Sept. 23.

“We did it at Dufferin school the very first year and we’ve done it at the Coast Bastion ever since,” Robertson said. “They were doing renos to the hotel, there were changes in room availability. We had looked at other venues, but some places aren’t comfortable with weightlifting so you’re just trying to experiment and figure out what would work.”

The different kettle bell lifts include the snatch, jerk and long cycle.

Fellow organizer and lifter Solomon Macys coaches many of the Nanaimo athletes who will have different goals for the competition.

“Everyone has their own lives they are contending with and very few of them are going to want to push their skill level with kettle bell. We just kind of plan on people getting out there participating, then feeling like they did what they set out to do, to set a goal and achieve it.”

The Gripstrength competition is a regional event but Macys is planning for something bigger next year.

“The plan right now is for us to host nationals and that is something I am planning on for mid-March, I just need to secure a location for that,” Macys said.

Spectators are welcome to the curling club to take in the Gripstrength event and there will also be a live stream available with all of the lifts expected to take about six hours.

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