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The best weightlifters on the African continent will converge on the Strand next week for the African Weightlifting Championships which will be held in the Strand Town Hall from May 12 to 16.

These championships will also be the final qualifying event for these African countries to compete at the Beijing Olympics in August 2008.

Entries have to date been received from Egypt, Algiers, Libya, Morocco, Tunis, Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, DR Congo, Cameroon, Comoros, Nigeria, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Liberia.

South Africa will have a full team of seven women and eight men at these championships including local Strand weightlifter Portia Vries (48 kg division), who is currently the number one women weightlifter in South Africa and who is a favourite to win a gold medal for SA here and also qualify for the SA Olympic team.

The SA team members are: Women: 48 kg: Portia Vries, 53 kg: Mariska Pretorius, Nicole Botha, 58 kg: Mona Pretorius, Zayanda Mjezu, 63 kg: Matshidiso Masiu, 75 kg: Babalwa Ndleleni.

Men: 56 kg: Luwellyne Phillips, 69 kg: Greg Shushu, Lyle du Plooy; 77 kg: Darryn Anthony, Stephen Cupido, 105 kg: Henk Booysen, +105 kg: William Ainslie, Jan Pretorius. The National coach is Aveenash Pandoo, who together with Portia and Zayanda Mjezu are members of the local Hottentots Holland Club.

This is the second time South Africa will be hosting this prestigious Olympic sport. The first time was in 1994, which SA hosted in the Strand Town Hall. In those days Women weightlifting was not yet a part of weightlifting in South Africa.

Fortunately, thanks to a concerted effort by Weightlifting SA, the sport has come a long way and SA now boasts a number of top lifters who have competed nationally and internationally for SA.

This event is largely sponsored by the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund and also supported by the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Department of Sport and Culture.

The Hottentots Holland Club will be the training facility for the visiting teams.

The programme is as follows: May 12 at 13:00 Grand Opening Ceremony at the Town Hall and at 15:00 that same day weightlifting starts, May 13 to 16 competition will be held daily from 10:00 to 17:00 and on May 17 will be the closing banquet.

Hubert Montgomery, chairman of the Hottentots Holland Club, invites everyone interested in this sport to the Town Hall to support to the South African team. Entry is free of charge.

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