Hannah Crymble and Caroline Doyle will represent Team Northern Ireland in weightlifting at this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Crymble, 26, who hails from Newtownards and competes in the 59kg weight category, was a gymnast in her youth but after taking up CrossFit opted to concentrate on weightlifting.
Doyle, a 29-year-old from Ballymena, is a former Ulster hockey schools player but had to give up the sport after tearing her meniscus. She competes in the 64kg weight category.
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Doyle also found her way into weightlifting after dabbling in CrossFit.
Team Lead Timmy Graham believes that now the qualification is confirmed the real work for building towards the games in Birmingham can begin.
“Both Hannah and Caroline have different targets and ambitions leading up to the games,” said Graham.
“Hannah is going to the Europeans (at the end of May in Albania) while Caroline has a nice strength phase ahead of her leading up to the games.
“Whenever it comes to the games, we’ll be looking for the best possible totals between the snatch and the clean and jerk.”
Both Hannah and Caroline are relatively new to the sport but are determined to make an impact at the games which commence on July 28.
“They are two new girls coming from the previous sports they did,” said Graham.
“Caroline came to me just over two years ago and said she wanted to make the cut for the Commonwealth Games.
“She was already doing weightlifting and we knew she had the potential to do really well. Hannah was the same when she came over to weightlifting.
“The two girls had really good backgrounds in sport, they had athletic capabilities and they are in a good position having already qualified so let’s see how it goes in Birmingham.”
Graham is hoping a UK-based Commonwealth Games will be advantageous to Team NI.
“It’s only across the pond,” he said. “We’re also on site at the NEC Hilton which is about 100 metres from the training hall and the competition is on site as well so we are very fortunate.
“At the last games on the Gold Coast (in Australia) we had to travel 25 minutes on a bus to get to the training hall and we were maybe out there three weeks prior to that.
“It’s nice to just walk across from the hotel to the Birmingham NEC and it’ll be very convenient for us.”
Emma McQuaid achieved a fourth-place finish at the Gold Coast games four years ago and Graham is hoping Crymble and Doyle can achieve a podium finish in Birmingham.
“Hopefully we can get up the rankings as high as we can,” he said.
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