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Matthew Lydement to close Tokyo weightlifting for Australia

 

Matthew Lydement to close Tokyo weightlifting for Australia

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AOC
Matthew Lydement

WEIGHTLIFTING: It's the final day for Australian weightlifting at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with one Aussie in action for the green and gold.

In March of 2020, Matthew Lydement told the Queensland Weightlifting Association that if he were to compete for Australia at the Olympic Games, that it would be the proudest moment of his life. 

“To be able to represent my country at the pinnacle of the sport. It’s what everyone strives for, so to achieve that would be a dream come true,” Lydement said at the time. 

Fast forward to Tuesday, August 3, 2021, and that dream will become a reality. 

Lydement, a 27-year-old from Brisbane, will step up to the platform at the Tokyo International Forum in the Men’s 109kg category. 

To date his personal bests are a 167kg snatch and a 199kg clean and jerk for a total of 356kg. 

It has been a long journey to the Games for Lydement, a self-confessed sports fanatic, who came to the sport in 2014.  

Lydement played cricket, Australian football and rugby union growing up, but was plagued by injuries throughout his youth. Then by happenstance, The Brisbane Barbell Club opened near his home.  

The Queenslander walked into the club and into the guidance of coach Damon Kelly, himself a dual Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist. 

 

 

Under the guidance of Kelly, who has remained his coach throughout his entire weightlifting career, Lydement has gone from strength to strength. 

Now he will face the very best in the world at the Tokyo International Forum including the current world record holder Simon Martirosyan of Armenia who claimed silver in the event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. 

Lydement will lift with Group B of the 109kg category at 2:50pm AEST. 

Matthew Barnard 

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