Four members of Portadown gym scoop four silver and three bronze medals in the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships in New Zealand

The lifters, Annette Forker, Niamh Carey, Toby Clarke, Elisa Solarska and Patrick Mulholland just returned before Christmas from New Zealand laden with the well deserved extra baggage,

Aged from 24 to 56, they all belong to Focus Gym in Portadown.

Team NI won a total of four gold medals, eight silver medals and 10 bronze medals.

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Toby Clarke (28) from Tandragee, won one of the silver medals for his performance in the 105kg category equipped bench press where he bench pressed 155kg.

Eliza Solarska (27) is a legal senior associate at PwC. She won a silver medal in her 63kg Classic Bench Press event.

Annette Forker, aged 56, from Lurgan, won a bronze medal in her 63kg Classics Bench Press event then a further two bronze medals in her squat and bench press and two silvers, one for her deadlift and a silver medal for overall performance. She only started power lifting aged 52 and is a mum to two girls and Granny Netty to two boys.

Niamh Carey, aged 28 from Rathfriland, came 4th in a very competitive category. Niamh, who is a lead Mechanical Engineer and CAD Manager at AJ Power Limited in Craigavon, turned to power lifting as a new challenge after losing five stone in body weight.

Their fifth member, Paddy Mulholland (24) from Portadown, unfortunately had to pull out from the competition last minute so he didn’t make it to New Zealand.

The other medals won by the NI team included Gold for Kathryn Marron in her deadlift and Michelle Breen in her squat, deadlift and overall.

Silver medals were also won by Michelle Breen in her bench press and Jim Rossborough in his equipped bench press, squat and bench press.

And Bronze medals were won by Jim Rossborough in his deadlift and overall and Conor Gelston in his squat, bench press, deadlift and overall.

Toby said: "Winning a silver medal on the international platform means the world to me and now holds special place next to some of my other accolades. I have worked hard since the last Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships in Canada back in 2019 training and focussing on my food and recovery so to have all of the early/late, cold, lonely training sessions pay off is incredible - it still hasn't really sank in. Although it is an individual sport, I wouldn't have been able to get to this stage without the support from all of my nearest and dearest family and friends.

“There was a mixture of emotions and feelings, mostly excitement and sheer joy. The main feeling was pure joy though. Seeing the result from all of the hard work, blood, sweat and tears made all of the hard, long, cold and lonely training sessions, early nights and strict diets worth it.

"They were short lived because I had to jump right back into coaching straight after my medal ceremony so I was thinking about my athletes and I could go and help them.”

Toby plans to have a bit of a break from hard training before filtering back into more specific training in the new year.

He said: “I am aiming to compete again around springtime with the aim of building and building for the next big competition and chasing down some personal milestones in the sport.”

“I’ve been training for and competing in power Lifting since 2018. I made the Commonwealth team back in 2019 where I competed in St Johns in Newfoundland, Canada. I loved that competition and so after that experience, I set myself the goal of qualifying for the next Commonwealths in New Zealand in 2021, however, Covid pushed that back to this year. When I got the email to say I was selected I was ecstatic, it made all of the long, lonely training sessions isolated from training partners and friends over multiple lockdowns worth it.

“Also, while over lockdown, I was studying for my MSc and am due to graduate soon. I work as a personal trainer in Focus where I help everyday people become fitter and healthier while still enjoying the things they love.

"It’s unusual to have a gym with more than one athlete that trains there to be selected for such a high profile competition so to have five selected for this games, and others selected for other high profile power lifting competitions is testament to the environment that is found at Focus.”