Power and Potential: Highlights from the 2024 BUCS Weightlifting Championship
Last month University of St Andrews Weightlifting Club travalled to London to compete in the annual BUCS Olympic Weightlifting Championships, held at Brunel University. It is categorised as a BWL Tier 1 Event meaning that all athletes competing needed to hit a certain total at a recent competition to be qualify. All Saints lifters hit their qualification totals at the Scottish University Championships in February which meant entry into the Championship.
Everyone is divided into weight categories, so you lift with people of similar build/weight to you.
There are 2 lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk. You have 3 attempts for each, in which the weight you pick cannot be decreased. ie if you try 100kg and fail you cannot go down to 95kg. The winner is whoever has the highest total (combined snatch and clean and jerk weights) in the weight class.
Saints sent down a team that included Hannah Chen, Hampus Fischerstrom, Jack Fernando, Jack Dalgeish, David Nkwo, Izzy Donaldson and Andrews Cheung. Hannah competed in the W64 class, placing 3rd out of 26 lifters! She managed to hit a 65kg snatch and a 89kg clean and jerk, with a 154kg total. Hannah won her weight class, won best female lifters and broke 2 Scottish University records (in clean and jerk and total) at Scottish Universities. Hampus competed in the M81 class, hitting a 80kg snatch and a 105 clean and jerk, ending with a 185kg total. Jack F competed in the M61 class placing 2nd, hitting a 60kg snatch and a 85kg cleaned and jerk, with a 145kg total. Jack F is also our current president of the Olympic Weightlifting Club for the year 2024-25, also recently competing at the Scottish Open and winning his weight class! Jack also holds 2 Scottish University records (in clean and jerk and total). Jack D competed in the M81 class, hitting a 77kg snatch and a 100kg clean and jerk, with a 177kg total. Jack D is the former president of the Olympic Weightlifting Club for the year 2023-24. David competed also in the M81 class, hitting a 90kg snatch and a 100kg clean and jerk, with a 190kg total. Izzy competed in the W76 class, hitting a 48kg snatch and a 60kg clean and jerk, ending with a 108kg total! Andrews also competed in the M81 class, unfortunately not making a total but hitting a 80kg snatch!
Jack Fernando said, “Having started Olympic weightlifting in my first year, I had set myself the goal of qualifying for BUCS. Now in my second year, I hit the necessary qualifying total at Scottish Unis and went on to compete at BUCS at Brunel University in Uxbridge. It was a great experience to travel with the club and compete on a national platform. The trip brought all the Saints athletes closer together and re-inspired our love for weightlifting.”
Hampus Fischerstrom, added, “It was a super fun experience in a cool environment with lots of really advanced and experiences lifters. Even though weightlifting is an individual sport having a team of people all hyping each other up really adds to the competition experience. I am looking forward to more big lifts and competitions over the next few years.”
The club are currently running a fundraiser to help raise money for the club, our membership costs only pay for the coaching so to allow us to send our lifters to competitions and for extra training sessions and workshops we rely on the fundraising money. To help the club, please visit their Saints Funder page here.