Female powerlifting champion urges youths to take sports seriously
Female powerlifting champion, Runita White is calling for youths to take up the challenge in sports as part of their development.
The Buddy’s Gym representative made this appeal to the hundreds that gathered at the Everest Cricket Club to witness the final match of the Regional Executive Officer Inter-Secondary Schools Cricket Competition of which her family company, W and R electrical was one of the sponsors.
In her address to the finalists, fans and students White urged all to see sports as an avenue in boosting their self-confidence while stressing on other benefits.
“What I would like to do however is to urge students mostly our young people to see sport as an avenue for creating development and enhancing themselves as it helps in inculcating discipline, d]sportsmanship, unity, dedication, love, cohesive behaviour, commitment and dedication while many of you would agree seems to be lacking among our young people,” she said.
She went on to say that “as a young woman I am not just saying that sports is good because I want to sound impressive and look good but rather because I have benefited significantly from the very advice that I am giving you. I have seen how it has helped me with my own personal life, with my holistic development as an individual as a young lady and most importantly in my business and professional life,” she said. White in 2016 acquired her Degree in Communication Studies from the University of Guyana and is currently reading for a MBA, said that had it not been for sports she is unaware as to where and what she would have been doing. “Sports had helped me to guide my life and that is why I am passionately appealing to many of you to see sport not just as something to take up your time but as a means of further strengthening and enhancing your skills and talent,” she stressed.
She admitted that she began competing in the sport of bodybuilding in February and has excelled, thus far as she takes whatever she is involved in seriously. The talented young businesswoman noted that the aim should not be ‘just taking part’ but rather competing at the highest possible level. “You must not just play a sport, you must do it with passion, determination, humbleness and most importantly be very disciplined ad dedicated as once you possess these attributes then you would certainly be excelling,” she told those at the presentation ceremony.
White assured the players that while her chosen sport is powerlifting she is very impressed with the level of competition that she saw and most importantly the discipline and sportsman like behaviour that exhibited among the players and therefore she would be urging her father to come on board for another year. White recently made history when she became the first woman in Guyana to claim a National Dead Lift Record 195KG in the Junior 84+ KG category. The record is an unofficial FESUPO (South American Powerlifting Federation) record and is considered the heaviest deadlift ever done by any woman in Guyana. Further, she has a Squat of 165 KG which is a junior record in the 84+ KG category and a Bench record of 65.5KG which is another junior record in the 84+KG category.