the snatch, where he lifted 128 kg; the clean and jerk, where he lifted 161 kg; and highest total lifted, awarded for most weight lifted in the previous two categories.

This is the second year Lusignan has competed at the competition, bringing home one gold medal in 2020. His sister, Naomie, is also a weightlifter who brought home her first medal at this year’s competition — which is for competitors under the age of 20 — placing third in the snatch in her division.

The siblings traveled with their Pembroke club to a gym in Toronto for the competition. It was the first time the competition was held online.

“It’s a little different, the environment,” Lusignan said. “We were supposed to compete in Deep River but we decided to go to Toronto because the environment would be like another gym, it would bring a different energy. It’s not like you go into your gym regularly and compete there.”

Though he placed at the top of his 89 kg class, Lusignan explained that even though he won three gold medals, his performance wasn’t what he had hoped. It was the first competition he had competed in in a year, and he said the lack of events could have contributed to his performance.

“The goal for us wasn’t the gold medals, we had numbers we wanted to hit in both the lifts,” Lusignan said of himself and the club. “There are so many factors that affected my performance, there were just so many things going on … we were actually pretty far from achieving what we had in mind.

“From a regular point of view, they see my performance as a success because I won first place in Canada and it’s a big deal, and yes, I’m happy I won first place. But my goal was to hit that total and I didn’t manage to,” he added.

Though he was not pleased with his performance, Lusignan is grateful for the experience and the support his community gave him and is looking forward to being able to shine brighter in the future. He recently competed again this past Sunday, March 28 in Deep River at the Ontario Provincial championships, which is a qualifying event for the Pan-American games. He took home another gold medal and said his performance there was much better than the previous week. Still, Lusignan does not regret the former competition.

“It was like a tune-up, it was a very good learning experience. So we learn from our mistakes and we move on to the next one,” he said. “I can’t wait to get back in there and have another great performance.”

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