Labausa prevails in weightlifting tourney

Antonette T. Labausa topped the women’s division of last Saturday’s Northern Marianas Cup Weightlifting Tournament held at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe. (Kimberly A. Bautista)

Seasoned weightlifter Antonette T. Labausa came out on top in the women’s division of last Saturday’s Northern Marianas Cup Weightlifting Tournament held at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.

Labausa, who has represented the CNMI in weightlifting on an international level, pushed herself to the limits and her efforts were not in vain as she topped the 76-kg category.

The 25-year-old dominated in the snatch, starting off with a good lift of 71 kg before moving on to her previous record best of 74 kg. As expected, Labausa triumphed and gained a round of applause from the crowd after breaking her own record when she crushed it in the 76 kg, logging it as her new personal best.

In the clean and jerk, Labausa breezed past 91 kg before succeeding at 94 kg, just 1 kg below her personal best. Unfortunately, Labausa failed in her attempt at 97 kg in the third and final round. She finished the tournament with a total of 170 kg.

“I thought I did pretty well overall. I snatched over my best and maybe just one kilogram under my best competition for clean and jerk. My best for competition clean and jerk was 95 and my best for snatch is now 76 but it was 74 before,” she said.

Labausa said she feels she did pretty well despite how involved she was in the preparation of the event which took a lot from her training.

“I think that I did a lot better than I was expecting because I was helping with a lot of the moving, [preparation], and [I was also] training other people too so it’s my first time doing a lot of things at once,” she said.

All female competitors pose for a photo following the awarding of the Northern Marianas Cup Weightlifting Tournament held at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe last Saturday. (Kimberly A. Bautista)

Labausa, who competed in the 2020 Australia Open and has devoted much of her time in international weightlifting training, said her international experience really gave her the confidence she needed during last Saturday’s competition.

“I think it just made me overall more confident. I’m tougher in a sense where my mindset is even though I’m tired, and even though I feel like you just can’t do it, you still got to do it so I think it really just made me tougher mentally,” she said.

Labausa conquered the only other woman in her weight category, Riella Ann B. Ichiro, who started off with 45 kg in the snatch before moving on to 48 kg before failing at her attempt at 51 kg.

For the clean and jerk, Ichiro struggled but prevailed at 58 kg before failing her first attempt at 62 kg. Ichiro finally got it right in the third round at 62 kg and finished with a total of 110 kg.

Also topping their respective categories were Zarinae Sapong and Danica Guevarra.

Sapong completed the tournament with her best snatch at 35 kg and her best clean and jerk at 49 kg totaling 84 kg, while Guevarra completed the tournament with her best snatch at 55 kg and her best clean and jerk at 70 kg totaling 125 kg.