No regrets as Young lifts for the stars

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Ian Chadband / AAP News

 

The charismatic weightlifter gave it his all to come away with a Commonwealth Games medal on debut.

 

Jackson Young looked at a weight far beyond anything he’d ever hoisted before – about the equivalent of a grand piano – and said to himself: “Mate, you gotta risk it for the biscuit.”

Alas, he ended with just the crumbs.

But Australia’s heavyweight lifter Young had no regrets about his noble last-lift gamble in the clean-and-jerk which would have earned him a bronze medal and a Commonwealth Games record on Wednesday.

Instead, the big Sydneysider had to settle for fifth place in the 109kg category, but with the warm memory of at least having gambled everything on one final effort to haul a monumental 211kg above his head.

“Yeah, I was throwing the kitchen sink at it. I didn’t come here to not at least put a medal on the bar – I’m glad I did even if I missed it,” the effervescent Young told AAP.

“It would have been a bronze, a Games record, an 11kg PB,” reflected the 25-year-old one-time rugby league player who took up American football and started lifting to strengthen those gridiron ambitions.

He knew the odds on him achieving it would have been stratospheric.

“I do like a bit of a gamble and if somebody says I can’t do something I definitely like to prove them wrong,” he smiled.

“I never doubted myself to at least plant it (in the clean), but the jerk is always a bit of a question mark for me.

“Unfortunately just missed it out the back,” he added, reflecting on how the huge weight flew behind him as he reached for the stars.

Junior Periclex Ngadja Nyabeyeu took the gold with a total lift of 361kg to give Cameroon their first gold of the Games, with Young totalling a combined snatch and clean-and-jerk total of 347kg.

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