Hello everyone!
It has been over a week since the U15 & Youth Championships began. There have already been many social media posts showing how well you all performed. Bribie Island weightlifting club hosted the event, which was incredibly well done by Jade Sharp and her crew of super-organised and efficient helpers. Jade has a small and humble club on Bribie, and to host a national event takes a lot of help, so thank you, Jade, Paul, Kieren, and all the parents who turned up and helped out. Many people noted how good the set-up was, and most notably, Sam Coffa was very impressed with the competition platform, remarking that you would pay $30k for an Eleiko platform that good.
This was my first appointment as Head Coach for Qld. Tise Aaifou was appointed Staff Coach, Chelsea Scard (Weston) was the Qld Team Leader (pre-event), and Jade Sharp as the QWA Youth Pathways manager and, as stated above, hosted the event with her Bribie Island club. The QWA and AWF put in incredible effort, working long hours to ensure these events ran smoothly. Deb Keelan the QWA Operations Manager driving down from Gympie with a car packed to the ceiling, Jim Mildren the new QWA President who came down from Cairns, the AWF CEO Ian Moir, who also packs his car quite tightly and drives to pretty much all events, just like Deb, are all putting in many unseen hrs well before we arrive and after we leave. Thank you to these outstanding people whose passion for the sport sometimes goes unnoticed as the competitions are run so smoothly. So many people volunteer their time and energy for these events, and we often overlook just how fortunate we are in the weightlifting community to have these events. Coaches, parents, technical officials, and committee members from clubs, state, and national boards make time for athletes to have such a great experience. Thank you all.
Our coaches made it very easy for me. Thank you. I really didn’t have to do much but confirm times, starters, PB’s, and who you were looking after. Most of you have coached at this level or higher, and I appreciate the professionalism you all showed in getting your athletes to do their best on the day. Everyone did an exceptional job. We had a couple of minor issues that are on me for assuming you all knew some procedures that will be addressed in my report to the QWA. I apologise for any moments of stress caused by this. It was minor and we sorted it quickly. Thank you to those who were on the ball.
Out of 88 entries, Qld had 46. This is not surprising, given that it is the home state. But Qld are a dominant force in Weightlifting, and we show up no matter where the competition is held. We have many clubs that support the growth of young athletes, and it shows every year in our competition results.
We had 28 females and 18 males.
Qld athletes either matched or bettered their own PB snatches (40), C+J (another 40), and Totals by another 40). Almost everyone matched or bettered their own PB’s of Snatch, C+J or Total. The athletes who didn’t PB still medalled and put in enormous efforts to unseat medal hopes above them.
Qld won all the team shields. U15 and Youth females, U15 and Youth Males.
Our teams and placings listed.
| Fem U15 Team | Fem Yth Team | Male U15 Team | Male Yth Team | ||||
| Summer McCarthy | 1st | Poppy Forrest | 1st | Rixen Eaborn | 3rd | Atticus Manz | 2nd |
| Olive Harvey | 1st | Sienna Lambert | 1st | Atticus Manz | 1st | Ashton Brenna | 3rd |
| Freya Robertson | 1st | Jaida Oliver | 2nd | Ashton Brennan | 3rd | Gabriel Intal | 1st |
| Summa Salisbury | 1st | Yasmin Aziz | 1st | Leon Neal | 3rd | Thomas McKay | 1st |
| Grace Mitchell | 1st | Mariella Gonzalez | 3rd | Harry Seaton | 2nd | Joel Crookall | 2nd |
| Catleya Gonzalez | 2nd | Saige Groves | 2nd | Josiah Baumgartner | 1st | Jesse Saliba | 2nd |
| Chloe Dolly | 1st | Jayda Williams | 3rd | Michael Pona | 2nd | ||
| Eva Acason | 1st | Paige Crowell | 2nd | Connor Hopgood | 1st |
The Head coach chooses the teams based on results and, most importantly, what their personal coaches tell us they will produce on the day. Everyone lifted what the coaches said. Congratulations to the coaches.
Adrienne Karniewicz, Angela Wydall, Barry Harden, Callum Hannay, Christian Hopper, Cooper Lydement, Coral Quinell, Dale Donoghue, Deborah Acason, Eugene (Woogie) Marsh, Greg Hobl, Iain Blacow, Jade Sharp, Jemma Cowper, Miles Wydall, Sonia Stenhouse, Tise Aaifou…. So much help, I hope I didn’t miss anyone.
Part of my role was to assign coaches to help athletes whose personal coach was unable to attend or had more than one athlete in that session. You all stepped up and helped where needed. I saw several instances where you all helped each other with counting, changing weights, and tactics, and it all paid off. This was Cooper’s first Nationals as a coach, and many of you helped him, which gave him a lot of confidence and knowledge for future roles. Thanks, Miles, Callum, Jemma, Woogie, Tise, Adrienne, Christian, and Greg, for sharing your time and expertise. I saw it. Appreciated.
I need to mention the other States. WA always turn up and they travel the furthest. They had 13 athletes turn up. Lots of quality coming out of WA. Each state has several very talented lifters and it pushes the ceiling for everyone to improve. We all check out who is lifting and the numbers they are achieving. It spurs us all on to do better. Ellie Zalcman pushes Sienna, Amelie Uren pushes Saige Groves, Indianna Wilson vs Isabel Grylls are great battles to see. Most of you would not know that our QWA Operations Manager Deb Keelan was the first Qld woman to C+J 100kg in competition. I don’t recall ever seeing so many female Youth lifting or attempting 100kg-plus C+Js. There were 6. Yasmin Aziz, Amelie Uren, Saige Groves, Isabel Grylls, Ramona Faamausili-Fala, and if Indianna Wilson had made the board, there would have been 7. So good to watch.
The guys also had some great battles and some clever coaching tactics helped improve some places. Tyson Eaborn, you can thank Miles for his coaching skills getting you that bronze! Ashton Brennan and Gregory Chong was a close one. Jesse Saliba and Charlie Hammond were in a battle amongst Qlders.
And of course we had those in a league of their own. Poppy Forrest, Yasmin Aziz, Atticus Manz, Thomas McKay, and Levi Davidson. Atticus and Poppy remain as Youth lifters, whilst Yasmin, Thomas, and Levi now move up to face another challenge as Juniors. Other athletes moving up to Juniors next year are Saige Groves, Sienna Lambert, Mariella Gonzalez, Georgia Sadler, Jayda Williams, Thomas McKay, Gabriel Intal, Joel Crookall, Charlie Hammond, and Connor Hopgood.
The 2008 athletes who are moving into the Junior categories. Thank you for turning up and showing that weightlifting is a sport for long-term growth and results. Thank you for showing the younger athletes your enthusiasm and belief in yourselves. It’s been a privilege watching you grow up and compete for Qld. If you turn up and put in the work consistently, you will get better and set PBs. You may not see it just yet, as you are all so young, but in the years to come, you will look back and appreciate the strength and resilience you will gain from this sport. PBs don’t always come easy, but competing builds your belief in the effort you have made and the body you are creating that will go on to support you forever. It’s pretty cool being able to do snatches and C+J’s. You have gained friendships and contacts that will also help you later in life.
A random piece of information that also helps give perspective on how long some of these people have been volunteering and giving time to this sport: most would not know that the AWF CEO, Ian Moir, used to use his lunchtime to coach Jade Sharp way back in the last century. You never know where these connections from sport can take you or keep you…
Thank you all,
Thank you QWA for giving me the opportunity.
Scott Robinson – Qld Head Coach U15/Youth 2025 Nationals.