By MIKE McCOMBS
For a bad day, it was pretty good.
Beaufort’s Dade Stanley swept gold in the 81kg weight class Wednesday at the 2019 Youth Pan American Weightlifting Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
The competition was the last for Stanley in the Youth class. Despite the three golds, Stanley wasn’t happy with his lifts.
“I love he is not satisfied and now he can do more,” Team Beaufort coach Ray Jones said.
Stanley easily won gold in the snatch with a 130kg lift — five kilograms more than the runner-up — before missing his attempt at 136kg, which would have broken the Youth Pan American record.
He then clinched the sweep on his first clean and jerk attempt, successfully lifting 150kg. Stanley hit 157kg on his second attempt but missed at 161kg on his final effort.
Stanley won the overall title by 30kg (66 pounds).
“It was a great experience all around,” Stanley said via text, “with some amazing people in an amazing country.”
Jones called it an “awesome day” but said Stanley having to follow himself meant little rest, making it hard to recover for the heavier lifts.
After the performance, Jones said, Stanley had a prolonged drug testing period.
“It took FOREVER,” Stanley texted. “We were waiting for about an hour, and when we finally went in there, I had to do blood and urine tests. (They) couldn’t find the vein very well and so the needle was in for a while, but after that, it was a breeze.”
Jones said for the short term, Stanley needed to sty healthy and train on the little things.
He should lift at the American Open in early December in Salt Lake City and hopefully lock in a spot on the Junior Worlds team in Egypt next March.
