Bearsden lifter powers to another major title victory

Bearsden powerlifter Mark Macqueen on the podium after adding the Commonwealth championship to his World and European titles

The 22-year-old not only became overall under 120 kilos champion, but also swept the board with golds in all three individual disciplines of squat, bench press and deadlift.

And just for good measure Mark also won best overall junior lifter of the entire competition, had the biggest squat, deadlift and biggest total for any age category or weight class and broke his own British record deadlift with 330kg.

Despite going into the competition as hot favourite, Mark said he didn’t feel under any added pressure other than from the expectations he puts on himself.

He said: “It went to plan. The goal was to do the hat-trick and the side goals were I wanted to win a gold in each discipline, which I did.

“I put a lot more pressure on myself but I fully believed I was going to win.

“The Commonwealths is the least competitive out of the three but because it’s only once every two years it’s probably more prestigious than the Euros.”

His triumph in Potchefstroom, near Johannesburg, follows victories in the Worlds in Belarus and the Euros in Denmark in his final year as a junior before stepping up to the open category in 2018.

His next competition is closer to home - at Ravenscraig in Motherwell next month when he hopes to round off his junior career with victory in the British Juniors.