WORTH THE WEIGHT
Red and white in her hair – now Campbell has a gold medal on her chest
THERE are those who sneer at the Commonwealth Games and there are days when their arguments make a good deal of sense. An afternoon watching Emily Campbell lifting huge weights is a decent cure for all that.
It was reasonably appropriate that one of the more absorbing contests of these Games was won by arguably its most fluorescent character, who rocked up with white and red in her hair and left with gold on her chest.
When it was all done, this former receptionist from Nottingham ripped off her support belt, swung it around her head, and filled a hall of the NEC with her screams as pyrotechnics burned. Her combined score of 286kg in the +87kg category was a personal best, a Games record and also eclipsed the best mark set by an athlete from the Commonwealth on other stages.
That belonged to Laurel Hubbard — remember her and that storm? It was a year ago and one day prior to this gathering that her story briefly dominated the Olympic Games. Amid that circus swaggered Campbell with a silver medal and the performance of a lifetime. The one the 28-year-old delivered here, in winning a fine duel with the defending champion, Samoa’s Feagaiga Stowers, was better by three kilograms.
‘I’m absolutely elated,’ she said. ‘I knew this would be a tough competition. I knew no one was going to hand it to me on a plate. I knew I would have to work for it but I said, “Whatever I needed to lift today to win that gold medal, I was going to do it”. ‘I hope people see how beautiful our sport is. Throughout the week you have seen it doesn’t matter what you look like, what shape you are, what size you are, you can pick up a bar and do it. ‘It is not about coming to the Commonwealth Games or coming to the Olympics, it is about doing something you love.’
Had Campbell (left) lost, which was eminently possible in light of Stowers’ talent, it would have somewhat soured an occasion that had effectively been choreographed for an English win. The organisers had brought in 86-year-old Precious McKenzie, the godfather of British weightlifting and a fourtime Commonwealth champion, and it was with his advice ringing in her ears that Campbell went out to compete. ‘He told me, “Everyone’s expecting you to win, you go out and win”,’ she said. ‘When Precious McKenzie tells you to go out and win, you go out and win.’
Campbell and Stowers came in at the same 117kg mark in the snatch, well in excess of the other eight chasers and, with a Games record and personal best 124kg, the Englishwoman led going to the clean and jerk. They traded championship records through the first of three attempts, before Stowers blinked in failing her second go at 154kg. Campbell killed off the contest by getting to 157kg and then lifted 162kg, poked out her tongue, and upgraded the bronze medal she won four years ago in Australia behind Stowers.