Celine King, Castlebar, won gold at the IUKL World Kettlebell Lifting Championships in Kazakhstan over the Halloween weekend. Celine is a member of the Irish International Kettlebell team. The 12 strong Irish team brought home eight golds, two silver and a bronze from Kazakhstan.
Kettlebell sport is relatively new in Ireland. It is an endurance sport which involves lifting kettlebells for the most amount of repetitions within a 10 minute time period. During this time the kettlebell cannot be put down and only one hand change is allowed. This sport requires not only endurance, but fitness, technique and mental stamina. There are various lifting disciplines, and Celine took gold in the snatch category with a 16kg bell in the 68kg+ weight division. The bell is swung between the legs and snatched up overhead where it is held (fixated ). This is counted as one repetition and it is then continued for 10 minutes.
Celine had initially started using kettlebells to help with her training in martial arts seven years ago with John Brawn and Oliver Quinn in Westport. She then 'fell' into competitive kettlebells three years ago. Since then she has won five national titles and the World Title in 2014 which was in Hamburg Germany.
After a short break Celine will be back training again to get ready for the national competition to qualify for the European Championships in May, and then for the 2017 World Championships being held in Seoul, Korea. Celine also wanted to thank everyone who contributed to her fundraising drive, and the Galway Roast in Castlebar who put on a fundraising evening. There are no funds available to the Irish team for kettlebells so each individual team member had to raise all monies to cover the expense of competing. For more information on kettlebells in Mayo look up Mayo Kettlebells on Facebook.
