Darin wins C'wealth power-lifting gold in Protcherfs troom

Sri Lankan Power-lifting champion Darin Weerasinghe won gold at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships held in Protcherfstroom, South Africa. Darin, who was a member of a team of nine that represented Sri Lanka, had stiff challenge from competitors of other countries such as New Zealand, Great Britain, India, Pakistan and South Africa.

Darin took part in the over 120kg Open Class and this has the strongest and largest lifters in the class with some of the British and South African athletes weighting well over 140kg. Being strategic in warm-ups and lifting smart and going down right to the last lift, Darin secured gold with a lift of 205kg in bench press. Darin had events back-to-back and secured a silver in the previous event.

The Open Raw Power-lifting Championship held the following day saw a three-way battle among the giants and Darin was facing competition from World Champion Mathys Herbst, the South African who weights 181kg. Keeping everyone on pins and going down to the final the more experienced, Mathys got the better of Darin and won Gold while Darin took the silver.

Darin is the only athlete from the team to enter four events and has successfully completed three with a gold and two silvers. Darin and the team train at High Octane Fitness and were sponsored by Mlesna, Audi Sri Lanka, Interblocks, UTE CAT and Specialised Shipping Services.