Georgia Games August 6, 2011 in Newnan, Georgia
Newnan, Georgia is driving distance from Atlanta, about 40 miles, so this competition only required a one day trip; no flying, plane tickets, rental car or hotel, less logistics as opposed to trip to Senior Nationals… Additionally, no singlet required, so I wore my regular workout clothes (Under Armor long sleeve shirt, short sleeve shirt on top and pants). This was an open competition so I competed in the 53kg weight class. Hence no losing water weight, and I was at 51-ish kg even with full clothing (which was good as I could just weigh in on the open scale).
The month of Ramadan (fasting from sunrise to sunset, no food or water) started August 1, Monday so by the Georgia Games this past August 6, I was more acclimated to fasting and working out. I work out before breaking my fast at sunset (read more on my blog post about fasting and training). I had 4 hours of sleep as I got to sleep late and I had to wake up for the pre-dawn meal, called Suhoor. Sunrise is about 5:30am so I woke up at 5am for that meal. I could not go back to sleep after that, and then I had to get ready and leave for Newnan as my weigh in needed to happen before the lift time for my session (10am). I was tired (more so from lack of sleep that night and the previous night — I did not use my time efficiently), but I was able to get a ride with the reporters from Voice Of America. I joked with my teammates and coach that for every competition I have been to, I get little sleep, as there always seems to be something that happens plus the fact that my lift times have always been in the morning. Maybe little sleep helps with getting an adrenaline rush.
Reporter Aisha Munira from VOA for Pakistan, Urdu service, and cameraman Kevork Tashdjian were there to film the competition and my participation. You will see Aisha in the video at the bottom of this post. They had arrived in Atlanta the Thursday prior to cover my story and a few other Atlanta stories. Thursday evening they had filmed while I was in training in my gym at Crossfit Atlanta. Friday night they (and Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters (AIB) reporter Daisha Wilbur) filmed me giving a talk to the youth at the Roswell Community Masjid. After the competition, they met my family and two of my friends, and conducted the final interviews. I am looking forward to the final video and broadcast.
My warmups went ok, but me and Travis figured it would be better to start light and see how it goes. Plus, because of getting acclimated to fasting, I had not been hitting as heavy weight the week prior. I lifted close to what I did at nationals, not bad considering the lack of sleep and fasting. I almost had meet record for my Clean & Jerk, but I might have taken too long of a rest between reps, and the jerk portion rolled forward and so I missed that attempt. Snatch: 38kg, 40kg, 42kg (missed this one) Clean & Jerk 50kg, 55kg, 60kg (missed the jerk)
The people who organized the event were very welcoming. This competition was fun and open to all divisions (age, gender and weight) so we saw kids as young as 13 and one gentleman who was 73 years old competing. The audience was lively and supportive and it is always fun to have your teammates around and compete with other local Georgian weightlifters that I have known since I started competing in Georgia. I also met some new people. If another local weightlifting meet is organized in the near future, I will definitely attend, and I am sure more people from my gym will go. This meet was a first time for several of them.
A few of the pictures Walter Barber took from the meet.
Video of the my lift attempts below. Aisha Munira is by the camera on the right. Another video will be placed in this post which will also include my teammates and other lifters at the meet.