National youth weightlifting competition comes to Maidstone

KentOnline / KMTV

We spoke to Cllr Dave Naghi and Maidstone Weightlifting Club's Matt Vine about what the England Age Group Weighlifting Championships will mean for the town

Transcript

00:00 Now, after the success of Maidstone United in the FA Cup, the rise of Sam Noakes ahead

00:04 of his huge fight tomorrow, and of course Olympians like the gymnast James Hall. All

00:09 eyes have been turning towards our county town recently. Well, another to add to the

00:13 list is the England Age Group Weightlifting Championships where weightlifters from 8 to

00:18 18 across the country will be travelling to Maidstone Leisure Centre to compete. Helping

00:23 to get Maidstone's crucial part of hosting the event, Borough Councillor Dave Nagy and

00:28 former Olympic weightlifter Matt Vine joined me in the studio earlier this week to explain

00:33 what people can expect from these championships.

00:36 Well, with weightlifting, the age range starts from children very, very young, 12 years of

00:42 age, who are just sort of learning the sport, learning how to do the lifts properly, all

00:46 the way through the different age groups, under 15s, under 17s, under 20s, under 23s.

00:51 So they bring them all together for almost like a festival, youth festival weightlifting

00:55 over a weekend, over three days. So in total, the entrances are now closed and there's over

01:02 200 competitors over the three days. Boys and girls, women and men and females. And

01:09 strangely enough, there's more females entered than there are men.

01:12 Okay, not perhaps what you'd expect.

01:14 Not what you'd expect. And with weightlifting, rather similar to boxing, there's different

01:18 weight categories. People always used to assume it's just big fellas doing it, but there's

01:22 different weight categories and different age groups. So it's really, as I say, a festival

01:30 weightlifting for all these children from all over the country. So I've looked at the

01:33 entry list and they're obviously coming from every part of the country, from England, as

01:36 far as Newcastle, North Yorkshire, Cornwall. So it should be quite a good event.

01:45 All eyes on Maidstone. Not the first time in recent weeks, of course. And Dave, you've

01:49 got your Maidstone United colour tie on there.

01:53 With pride.

01:54 With pride, absolutely. And you were on the bus to Ipswich, weren't you?

01:56 Yes, I went to Ipswich for that unique occasion, historical. And that's what seems to be happening

02:03 in Maidstone at the moment. And the weightlifting coming down, how unique is that for Maidstone?

02:10 First time down this way. I think first time they went to London once, but they come down

02:13 to the south east and the county town.

02:17 Matt, you're from Maidstone, you grew up here and you've been all around the world representing

02:22 Team GB, competed in the Olympics, of course, for the country. How does it feel now to give

02:28 back to the place you came from for Maidstone? Because you work obviously with Maidstone

02:32 Weightlifting Club, with some of these youngsters that will be competing.

02:35 Absolutely. It is very rewarding because obviously you see, I can relate to it, about starting

02:43 off in it and people making their way through the actual sport and obviously trying to give

02:48 them some sort of guidance from experience. Obviously most experience is when it's gone

02:52 slightly wrong, you're trying to guide them not to go in that particular way. But it's

02:57 very rewarding to see the kids involved, particularly from the local area and so on. And hopefully,

03:04 obviously there's a few of them who have aspirations to move up to different high levels and so

03:09 on. Some are at the moment, which is very, very good.

03:11 I've known Matt for many years, he's an inspiration.

03:15 I wouldn't go that far.

03:17 He was in the Seoul Olympics and is only one standard with Matt. And I think that's why

03:24 Maidstone Weightlifting Club does so well. Because like everything, you're only as good

03:28 as your coach.

03:30 I think for whatever reason at the moment, and I say this quite often, we're having an

03:36 era, lots of sports teams, lots of everything really has an era when it just is the golden

03:43 era when for whatever reason we have a group of talented kids that have come together.

03:49 And that encourages other people to come and join as well because obviously we've got a

03:54 reputation at the moment, so that's really good.

03:56 And weightlifting itself is such a unique sport as well, such discipline that you need

04:02 to take part in it. And some of these kids as well, they're as young as under 10s is

04:06 the lowest category. So they're going to take this with them through the rest of their lives?

04:11 I think so. It's very much like a stage school for people going to theatre because they're

04:18 learning it from such a young age. It's almost in the system. So when they come to do it,

04:24 they're just an automatic pilot because they're growing up with it and they're just learning

04:27 it when they're obviously learning the whole experience, the whole procedures from a young

04:30 age. So it's quite an advantage because obviously it just comes with second nature to them.

04:36 And of course it's going to be in Maidstone Leisure Centre as well, the kind of centre

04:40 point for a lot of the activity that's been on there for years. I remember going to Maidstone

04:44 Leisure Centre as a youngster, being able to bring it to that specific location. Talk

04:49 to me through that.

04:50 Well, I did one for a friend of mine, a power weightlifting in 2006. So I knew it was a

04:57 possibility that Maidstone might fund it. And I said to Matt about it and he said, "What

05:02 a great idea." And he went to the association and said, "Look, I could have a free let for

05:07 one day because Maidstone Borough Council do that, doing coverage, things like this."

05:11 And they went for it and it's turned out to be fantastic. You know, the council contributing

05:16 and people usually have to travel up north, but this time it's the other way around. And

05:21 it's fantastic. And being as the county town, to have this in the south east is fantastic

05:27 I think. Unique is the word I would use.

05:30 And it's of course Olympic year as well. We have to talk about this before we wrap up.

05:34 Such an inspirational event as always. We always talk about it, ever since London 2012,

05:39 the sort of legacy of it and how inspirational it can be when it comes around every four

05:43 years. Is there a hope that this event will kind of inspire more people to take up weightlifting?

05:48 I think so because quite often we've got a number of children locally and we've pushed

05:53 to try and get them included, particularly in the development phases. So they're going

05:57 to come along and hopefully they're going to enjoy the whole experience. So that just

06:00 may just sway them that this is possibly the sport for them if they get a great experience,

06:04 which hopefully being in their hometown, there'll be a lot of local support, hopefully that

06:08 will just, as you say, inspire a few people that this could be the sport for them.

06:13 In the Olympics, Olympian himself, he's got that experience, he can pass on.

06:18 Wow. It was a long time ago now and it's a far more competitive world out there now than

06:23 when I was doing it. So it's a slightly different approach all now.

06:27 But there must be, I mean going around the world and competing for the country, there

06:30 must be some lessons that you learnt through that experience that you're passing on to

06:34 these youngsters when you're training with them week in, week out.

06:36 I think there is that aspect to it where you're trying to pass that experience on. But there's

06:42 to a certain extent they learn their own way of doing it, their own approach to it and

06:47 so on. But I think quite often one of the most important things, if you can get them

06:52 to train together as a group, that helps greatly and training with other people, other locations,

06:58 other coaches, that gives a much broader experience of weightlifting and that does help because

07:04 you can actually get very, very comfortable in your own environment of course, but then

07:07 you start moving, travelling abroad and it's completely different. So you've got to prepare

07:11 them for it. It's not exactly the same as it is here, so that's quite important as well.

07:16 Well it sounds like it's going to be a spectacle. Three days of weightlifting, all different

07:20 age ranges taking part. We'll come down and we'll film it of course and see how it gets

07:25 on. Thank you very much for joining us.

Category

Transcript

Recommended