Chapter Thirty: Off to Tonga for Oceania Championships & Fate becomes the decider
In May 2003 I went to the Commonwealth and Oceania Championships in the Kingdom of Tonga, on its main island of Tongatapu. I had been training for the last few months only once a day and had managed to get back to being in the best shape of my career. After I’d worked out my short term plan, I had decided to go all out and trained for these Championships 100% mentally committed. Stepping stones. My mantra all along. I would take each step at a time and decide where to go from there.
Actually it wasn’t really once a day… I had been going to the local PCYC at North Sydney occasionally in my lunch hour to get in some extra squats and pulls, but it was by no means the double or even triple session days I had been doing the past few years. Still my strength was back and so was my fitness.
Tonga was an interesting place. It exceeded my expectations. There were some really pretty parts & lots of palm trees! It is a developing country but was more advanced than I expected, especially considering its remote location.
I had one of the best competitions of my career in Tonga. I made weight easily at 58kg, without dieting or starving. During the competition it was hot, I was rushed, yet I felt strong and fresh. I breezed through the snatches. Then in the Clean and Jerks, one of the competitors from the Oceania Institute team changed attempts unexpectedly which meant I had no time to recover from my last Clean & Jerk warm-up and had to literally run to the platform. Under normal circumstances this would have been a mean feat for me as I normally needed lots of recovery in Clean & Jerk warm-ups. It wasn’t uncommon for Steve T to be waving a towel in my face to give me some air and help me recover in between attempts. However, after running to the platform as the clock counted down, I got the lift easily. I ended up with equal PB’s: Snatched 82.5kg and Clean and Jerked 102.5kg, to win the Oceania competition and come second in the Commonwealth (beaten by India).
The only hiccup was a slight strain again to my back on the last Clean & Jerk, probably an aggravation from my old injury, from Poland.
After the competition we had a couple of days before flying back home. So we managed some sight-seeing around the island during the day and experienced some Tongan hospitality and culture, watching some local dancers and enjoying a traditional feast at night.
When I arrived home, my monthly cycle was 4 days late. I had to take another test which involved peeing, but this one was different to all the ASDA ones I’d taken. This test was positive -the only positive test I would ever be happy to hear about! It turned out I’d had a little extra help on the platform at the Oceania Championships, which might have explained why I felt so different when I was lifting.
Fate had decided my future for me. It turned out this was to be my last competition. Well for a while anyway – I still couldn’t bring myself to officially retire.
Coming up next – Chapter 31: Taking an extended break