Olympic Weightlifting World Championships 2009: Go Sarah Bertram!

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 6:20 pm  
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Sarah at the World Championships 2009

Sarah at the World Championships 2009

Fellow Oregonian, Sarah Bertram recently finished competing at the 2009 World Championships in Goyang City, Korea.  She placed 16th, which makes her the 16 strongest woman on the planet in her weight class.  Put that way, what a bad-ass! Great job, Sarah!

I think she’s in a good position to be competitive in 2 years when the Olympics comes around.  I’ve competed “with” her many times, and she is very impressive to watch (as are her team mates).  It’s been cool to see her improve over the years, first winning Nationals, and now representing the US at the Worlds.

She hit an 89k snatch, and a 107k clean and jerk, for a total of 196k. The snatch was a personal record and the clean was only 2k off of her best.

All the results of the championships can be seen on the IWF website.

EDIT:  It turns out, Sarah is the first Oregonian (female or male) to go to the world championships–ever.  Fantastic.

Portland Highland Games and the Price of Kilts.

Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 10:53 pm  
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Credit: Portland Highland Games Association

Credit: Portland Highland Games Association

A couple of the guys on my Weightlifting Club and I are planning on competing this coming Saturday in the Portland Highland Games.  Should be  a rockin’ good time.  We’re all Newbies, so I’m planning on looking ridiculous … but what else is new?!  I have a new sport kilt to replace my old wool one (who wants to workout in wool?).  Should be great.

Highland Games is a rockin’ sport, but it certainly favors the big guys (like the dude in the picture).  None of us are that.  But, as Olympic Weightlifters we ARE explosive, strong, and athletic.  That should help.

By the way, with regard to my old wool kilt, I learned the reason why kilts cost as much as they do (often over $400) and I don’t see it as strange any longer.  I sewed my old kilt myself by hand.  It took a VERY long time.  Getting all the pleating right is no small task.  You wouldn’t think that sewing a “skirt” out of 12 yards of wool would be that big a deal, but it is!

My new kilt is a sport kilt, not wool but rayon (or some other fake fabric), and it isn’t as fancy nor is it hand made.  So it wasn’t too expensive (about $75).  I’ll keep my old one for “dressy” occasions, and use the new one for competing.

Buchanan Tartan

Buchanan Tartan