HANNAH Crymble knows what to expect in Glasgow after the weightlifter qualified for her second consecutive Commonwealth Games.
The Newtownards nurse achieved a sixth placed finish in Birmingham four years ago and is delighted to make the Team NI squad again.
“It was quite a difficult qualification process for myself, so to finally get that call that I’d been selected was probably one of the best phone calls I’ve ever received, so I’m just delighted to have made the team and I can’t wait to work extremely hard for the next seven weeks and see what sort of performance I can put out at the games,” enthused Crymble.
“My weight class (for qualification) in particular is just extremely competitive, so we’re all really on top of each other in terms of our totals, so I was just having to put out performances that I hadn’t done previously and it was very stressful at times.”
Victory in the British Championships sealed Crymble’s place in Glasgow.
“I became back-to-back British Champion a couple of weeks ago which I don’t think any female North Irish weightlifter has ever done that before, so yeah, it was a great competition for myself,” Hannah adds.
“In Birmingham, I’d only just started weightlifting, Birmingham was my second ever international competition, so I was a wee bit, you know, a deer in the headlights. I just didn’t know what to expect at all, whereas this time round, I’ve obviously a lot more experience behind myself now.
“So, I just can’t wait to get there and just take it all in and really enjoy the atmosphere of it all.”
Crymble will be relishing every moment in Glasgow: “Just take regular moments to just stop and take it in, you know, get chatting to all the other countries there, really just embrace the experience with the rest of the team.
“We had a smaller team that went last time round, so yeah, just to really take it in and just enjoy it for what it is.”
Crymble has to navigate working full time in the NHS with training as an elite athlete.
She relates: “I am still working as a nurse, I’m working in the Northern Ireland Cancer Centre, still balancing both, I’m extremely lucky with the team that I work with, my manager and colleagues are both very supportive and interested in my sport, so we all just work together to make sure can work my rota around shifts and training.
“I work 13-hour shifts, they can be days and nights, so if I’m at work, I’m not training, it’s just not feasible for me to get up at four or five in the morning to train or be training at 10pm when I get home from work.
“So, they’re just seen as my rest days, depending on where I am in my training cycle. My coach and I will either try to factor in double training sessions throughout the week, so then I have one full rest day.
“Or else we’ll just be doing singles, so I’ll train the five days and then my rest days are the days that I am at work, which obviously isn’t ideal because a 13-hour shift running around a ward isn’t exactly a rest.”
Crymble just wants to enjoy the competition in Glasgow, continuing: “It’s probably my top goal to walk away proud from the performance I’ve put out, I do have particular numbers and totals in mind, but I am going to keep them to myself, but they’re all extremely achievable and I’m just really looking forward to seeing what the competition brings for me.
“I think with my experience now that I have with competing, I understand myself and the competition a lot more now of what weights to open with in my second and third attempts.
“Back in Birmingham, I didn’t really know that I probably opened a wee bit too heavy than what I was really capable of, so this time around, I’m definitely a much more experienced lifter and I’m a lot more confident in my abilities as well.”
