Commonwealth Games: Final lift is worth the weight

Pip Hale competes in the women's 53kg weightlifting competition at the Games. The Kiwi finished sixth overall. Photo / Getty Images

"Do you think you could do that, Dad?" a young boy asks as he exits the auditorium.

Although some fathers appear bulletproof to their kids, capable of any imaginable feat of physicality, there's no point hiding the truth on this occasion.

"No chance."

The achievement that earned the awe of the youngster was one of the more remarkable viewing experiences at these Commonwealth Games: watching 53kg women lift more than twice their body weight.

While Kiwi Pip Hale missed that notable mark, missing out on a medal in the process, the power displayed by her and the 11 other competitors was incongruous when compared to normal notions of strength or body type.

The women, all 51kg-53kg, were far from muscle-bound. To call them stocky, in many cases, would have been inaccurate. But they maximised every gram in their body when hoisting the heavy plates high above their heads.

The loaders who assisted in placing those plates on the bar were certainly heavier than the competitors. So, too, were the judges and officials and lurking photographers. In fact, everyone on stage at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow would have tipped the scales more than the athletes.

But none of them - and none of the fathers watching on in the audience - would consider themselves capable of matching the efforts of the women.

One of those women, Nigerian Chika Amalaha, defied not only her weight but her age while claiming gold. The 16-year-old was the final lifter to step on to the stage in the snatch, having set herself a Games record-equalling 82kg for her first attempt. She made it, easily.

In the clean-and-jerk, Amalaha, wearing a highlighter-green scrunchie in her hair to match the trim on her black uniform, raised 111kg, good for another Games record and she also became the youngest female weightlifter to win Games gold.

There was no such super-human display of strength from Hale, whose total of 174kg was good for sixth. Sporting an easy smile and looking more relaxed than when in front of a few Kiwi hacks at a press conference this week, Hale was earlier introduced to cheers from the watching fans, many of them fellow lifters from many different nations.

A communal spirit clearly exists in the sport - some judges were even greeted by raucous applause from compatriots in the crowd - and the 12 women on stage, each appearing as diminutive as the next, seemed warm and welcoming to one another.

After the introductions came a short video in which The Van T's, a Glaswegian rock band, explained in musical form the intricacies of weightlifting for any neophytes at the venue.

The two rather comely young women strummed guitars and sang, 'The weightlifting competition and its great ambition requires physical and mental strength', before outlining the rules of the sport.The duo then made way for the lifters.

If put in a police line-up together, the athletes and musicians would be almost indistinguishable. Unless you asked one to lift another.