Ontario Winter Games
MUSKOKA — Hilary Sinclair is worth her weight in silver.
The 18-year-old Severn Bridge resident lifted her way to a second-place finish in the 75-plus kilogram weight class at the Ontario Winter Games on Friday.
Sinclair has been hooked on the sport since trying it about a year ago.
“I used to play basketball, but I was getting tired of it,” said the Orillia high school student. “I would go to the gym in the summer and saw this new sport, so I thought I would try it out. Since then I’ve been hooked. I love it.”
Sinclair is coached by Ian Webb, who operates Trojan Weightlifting Club in Oro where Sinclair trains three days a week.
Her 90-minute training regimen includes different presses, a complete breakdown of technique, and lots of squats.
In one-day winter games competition at Muskoka Boat & Heritage Centre in Gravenhurst, athletes had three attempts at two overhead lifts of a barbell: the “snatch” and the “clean and jerk.”
Sinclair said the snatch lift is performed with a wide grip and the weight must be lifted straight from the floor to above the head in one motion.
Using a shorter grip, the clean and jerk, she explained, is a two-stage lift where the weight is lifted from the floor to the shoulders/collarbone and then forcefully driven to arm’s length.
With her family watching, Sinclair successfully completed three snatches at 55, 58 and 60 kilograms, setting a new personal best of 60 kg.
Her only competitor, Sheila Paulin from the Variety Village club in Toronto, accomplished a 60-kg snatch, but failed on two attempts at 64 kg.
In the clean and jerk, Sinclair failed to lift the first 65-kg weight.
“I thought I missed it,” she said in retrospect. “I pressed up in the jerk but I let it go before the buzzer.”
Athletes must demonstrate control of the weight with their feet planted for two seconds. Three judges determine whether the lift is good or not.
“It was nerve-wracking to miss the first one,” she said.
In her second lift, she executed a perfect clean and jerk at 67 kg, but struggled with a 70-kg attempt, which would have been a new personal best.
“It must be exact and my arms weren’t locked,” she explained.
Sinclair’s opponent nailed a 70- and 75-kg clean and jerk, but could not achieve the 78-kg lift. Paulin won gold in the weightlifting event for lifting a total of 135 kg.
Sinclair earned the silver medal with 127 kg.
“I feel really good about my results,” she said. “I was very happy with everything that went up.”
Parents Barbara and Doug Sinclair and her sister watched the competition with bated breath.
“If you look up proud in Webster’s dictionary, you’ll see a picture of us,” Doug said.
A silver medal at the Ontario Winter Games isn’t Sinclair’s first success in the sport. She placed fourth in her weight class at the Canadian Juniors in Quebec on Jan. 23.
Sinclair intends to stick with weightlifting and hopes to qualify for nationals at the senior level.
Asked if she could one day be an Olympian, Sinclair said, “It’s what I’m hoping for. I don’t know about 2012, but hopefully 2016.”