Youth weightlifting tournament lands down in Maidstone
With athletes as young as 10 coming from as far as Manchester, lots of medals and national titles were up for the taking.
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00:00 A three-day weightlifting bonanza took place in Maidstone this weekend, as the leisure
00:05 centre saw hundreds of lifters of all different ages and backgrounds step up to the bar.
00:13 Crowds of family members and friends sat in the stands as celebrity athletes like Emily
00:17 Still, a BBC Gladiator contestant with tens of thousands of followers, displayed her strength.
00:23 The biggest lift came from Myron Madden, the newly crowned male under-23s English age group
00:28 champion as he hoisted a hefty 182kg clean and jerk to win gold.
00:34 Behind me you can see the platforms where hundreds of lifters came from across the country
00:40 to show what they're made of.
00:41 Today boys and girls as young as six are stepping up to show their strength.
00:47 Yes, you heard that right.
00:49 Kids as young as six competed in the tournament on Sunday.
00:52 Matt Vine, a former Great British Olympian and current coach at the Maidstone Weightlifting
00:56 Club, spoke about the popularity of the tournament.
00:59 We've run our own small competitions, but to bring a national championship to here and
01:03 have 200 lifters over three days, and from all over the country, it's been enormous.
01:10 I think we've definitely seen one or two people who in a few years' time will be actually
01:14 representing Great Britain.
01:16 With the next Olympics just under six months away, it may be too soon for some to compete,
01:21 but some future stars are certainly on their way.
01:24 One of them being Maidstone's very own Dylan Botton.
01:27 His lifting today earned him gold in the under-10s category.
01:30 Well, it started when I just came in here and I saw they were doing it and I wanted
01:39 to take part.
01:40 And then over the last few weeks, I went for a couple of weeks and I found out I really
01:47 liked it.
01:48 And then I've been doing it for years now.
01:49 And I'm hoping to carry on that journey all the way to the Olympics.
01:55 As the events gains attention from all corners of the country, Councillor David Nagy hopes
02:00 that the events will return to Maidstone.
02:02 We have this in Maidstone over the weekend, and then Monday night, tomorrow night, when
02:08 we could be in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, it couldn't be any better.
02:13 Maybe every other year they come down to Maidstone, because it isn't the place to be.
02:17 As the British Weightlifting Association travels far and wide on its tours, Maidstone's medalists
02:22 made their mark.
02:23 But where next for these future stars?
02:25 James Hill, KMTV.