Paisley duo aim to make a statement on world kettlebell stage
Two Buddies will be aiming to be worth their weight in gold as they get set to represent Scotland on the international stage.
Lynn Wojciechowska, 65, and Kathleen Oswald, 68, who both train at Just Train gym in Hillington, have been selected to star for the Scots at the upcoming International Union of Kettlebell Lifters European Championships in Hungary later this month.
They will also compete at the World Kettlebell Sport Federation World Championships in Milan, Italy, in June.
Many are not aware of Kettlebell sport, instead seeing it more as a gym class. However, Gyria Sport in Russia and Eastern European countries have seen a rise in poularity over the last decade where more and more people are choosing to take it up.
A Scotland team has been travelling to European and World Kettlebell Championships since 2012, when a team of four competed.
Since then, the development of a National body, the Scottish Kettlebell Sport Federation ( SKSF), has taken the organisation and development of the sport forward. Last year’s team included 20.
The team members brought home 13 gold, 11 silver and six bronze medals from Greece. This year, more than 30 athletes have qualified for the team and are training hard.
The team members come from all over Scotland. The youngest at 18, is Chloe from Inverurie, and the two oldest veterans are 65 and 68 respectively, both Paisley Buddies. Lynn and Kathleen train at Just Train Gym in Hillington, where they train under national coach and SKSF President Scott McLaughlin.
More women than men participate in the sport and this is reflected in the team makeup; this year sees a team that includes 24 women and eight men.
Kettlebells is an endurance sport with three lifting events – Jerk, Long Cycle Clean and Jerk, and Snatch. Kettlebell weights vary from 8kg to 24kg for women and 16kg to 32kg for men. In each event, the lifter aims to achieve as many technically correct repetitions as possible without putting the kettlebell down, within the set timeframe which is traditionally 10 minutes.
As a emerging sport, Kettlebell Sport has no funding streams available. National Team
members pay for their own travel and accommodation, with fundraising events being held all over Scotland to raise money for squad kit, entry fees and mandatory drug testing.
This year the team has been fortunate enough to obtain a kit sponsorship from X402 Ltd, a Bespoke Software Solutions company based in Hillington.
X402.com has also contributed generously to the team’s uniform costs, and company owner Steven Wojciechowski said: “We’re proud to be supporting the Scotland team and we hope that this will help them to build on last year’s success.”
Preparations continue right up to the trip to Italy and the Just Train Gym is hosting the last competition before the international events today.
This event will have shorter seven-minute sets, and many of the Scotland team members will be taking part. This too is a fundraiser, with all profits going to team expenses.
Anyone is welcome to come along to watch and there is no charge for this, although since it is a fundraiser, there will be a donation bucket.