The Para Powerlifting World Championships got underway on Tuesday with the Junior World Championships. Ruairi Devlin, Niamh Buckley and Casey Fitzgerald all competed on the opening day.

Dubai hosted the Junior Para Powerlifting World Championships, with three of our athletes competing.

In the early hours on Tuesday, Ruairi Devlin made his international debut, competing in the Up to 65kg class. Clearing two of his three lifts, the Cork-man lifted 72kg on the first lift, while his second lift was discarded for his stop sequence when attempting to lift 77kg. Attempting 77kg for his third and final lift, Ruairi cleared the attempt, to confirm 5th place in his weight class.

In the afternoon, Niamh Buckley of Cork and Casey Fitzgerald of Cavan both competed, with Fitzgerald making her major competition debut.

Niamh Buckley was competing in the Up to 61kg class, while Casey Fitzgerald was placed in the Up to 73kg class.

Buckley faced competition from Ukrainian, Halyna Vabishchevych and had a difficult start with her first and second lifts not counting due to her stop sequence in round one and one red flag for the body sequence and another for the press sequence in round two. Meaning her third and final lift had to be successful for any chance of claiming a medal.

With a personal best before the competition being 66kg, Niamh went on to press 74kg cleanly in the third round, claiming silver medal.

Fitzgerald experienced a similar path in her class, as the first round was red flagged due to the body sequence, while in round 2, another red flag received due to the press sequence and body sequence. In order to claim a medal, Casey needed a successful lift in the third round.

Attempting to match her personal best of 75kg, Casey received two white flags to seal the gold medal. The confirmation met with a mixture of celebration and relief on stage by the 17-year-old.

All the action of the Senior World Championships will be streamed on Paralympic Games’ YouTube channel and you can find when our powerlifters are next in action below:

Saturday 26th August

Angela Long – Up to 73kg – 6:30am

Britney Arendse – Up to 73kg – 6:30am

Casey Fitzgerald – Up to 73kg – 6:30am

Ruairi Devlin – Up to 65kg – 1:00pm

Sunday 27th August

Niamh Buckley – Up to 61kg – 1:00pm

Nicola Dore – Up to 61kg – 1:00pm

Tuesday 29th August

Sean Hughes – Up to 88kg – 10:30am