It was a golden holiday for 23-year-old Langley native Adam Masse, who captured the gold medal in the 77-kilogram division at the B.C. weightlifting provincial championships held recently at Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary in Surrey.
Masse out-lifted six other competitors in both the snatch with a lift of 120 kilograms, and in the clean and jerk with a lift of 155 kilograms to claim the gold.
Both totals were not even Masse’s personal best marks.
The silver went to Richard Kam (Ultimate Weightlifting) with lifts of 116 and 150 kilograms, respectively, and the bronze to Ben Turner (unaffiliated) with lifts of 106 and 136 kilograms.
Masse’s 155 kilogram clean and jerk lift set a new provincial record, breaking the one that he just set this past June.
He also set a new combined record for the 77-kilogram weight division with a total of 275 kilograms, and just missed a clean sweep of the division records by two kilograms.
On top of the gold medal and the records, Masse also picked up the award as Best Overall Senior Male, and has climbed to No. 3 in the overall B.C. senior men’s provincial rankings.
The provincial gold medal also punched Masse’s ticket to the 2015 Canadian National Weightlifting Championships, to be held next May in Mississauga Ont.
The Canadian championships meet will also serve as a national team selection event for the 2015 Pan Am Games being held in Toronto two months later.
In two Canadian Weightlifting Federation-sanctioned events in the past six months, Masse has two golds, two new B.C. records for his weight class, and has claimed a pair of Best Overall Senior Men’s awards.