Ballydangan man wins European gold in powerlifting
Ballydangan man Ciarán Murray came away with a gold medal and two silver medals from the European Powerlifting Junior Championships in Sweden last Sunday week.
The championships were run by the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) and held in the city of Vasteras in central Sweden.
There were three aspects to the competition – the squat, the bench press and the deadlift. Competing in the 66kgs and under category, Ciarán won silver medals for his displays in the squat and the deadlift.
The bench press is generally the weakest discipline for Ciarán, but the combination of his performances over the three categories was sufficient to secure the gold medal overall.
As things transpired, a Russian competitor lifted the same combined weight as Ciarán (587.5kgs) but, as the Russian is a couple of kilos heavier, the gold medal went to the Co. Roscommon man.
Ciarán turned 23 last September which means this was the last time he was eligible to compete at junior level.
Ciarán’s older brother Niall took up weightlifting as part of a bid to improve his fitness levels when studying in Birmingham. And when a gym was set up at home in their father’s garage, Niall encouraged Ciarán to give weightlifting a try. The rest of the family thought Ciarán would probably only stick with it for a few weeks, but he confounded expectations with his interest in the sport and his rapid progress.
Ciarán has represented Ireland on a number of occasions and, earlier this year, he won a bronze medal in the World Championships held in Halmstad, Sweden. He recorded a national record for the squat in the process.
In addition to the Covid-19 tests which have become commonplace for any athletes competing abroad, Ciarán and the other competitors were subject to stringent drug testing before participating in Sweden.
A former student of Athlone Community College, Ciarán is a son of Liz and Joe Murray from Thomastown, Ballydangan. Ciarán is currently studying for a masters in electronic and computer engineering at the University of Limerick.
His dad Joe believes Ciarán may opt not to compete at senior level due to the huge time commitment required, though he feels he’ll keep training in powerlifting in some form.
“Maybe Covid helped Ciarán in terms of his training as there wasn’t much socialising going on,” Joe told the Westmeath Independent.
Joe recalled that at one stage he had to enlist the services of a builder to reinforce the floor of the shed due to the volume of weights Ciarán was lifting.
“I thought he was trying to wreck my new shed,” Joe added with a laugh.
Alex Cremins, a colleague of Ciarán’s at UL, broke the European record in the deadlift when competing in Sweden, but missed out on a medal in the overall standings.