Eight athletes who competed in this year's North American Regional Powerlifting Championships are back in Belize with medals adorning their necks. The competition was held in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Belize's team came home with gold, silver and bronze placements.
Today we met with the president of the Belize Powerlifting Association at the PGIA. He explained that the team performed well, and they're looking forward to hosting the championships in 2026.
Khalid Usher, President, BPABronze
"This year, it was held in the USA. This year, we put in a lot more training preparing for this event. It was a lot more nerve-racking than the other ones we've done in the past considering the calibre of athletes we went up against this year. Last year in the Cayman Islands, the Commission had about 270 people competing. And this year was 370. So for every person's class, it was highly competitive and as usual, we did really well."
"What we're really proud of is that our sub junior-junior athletes did really well as they do every year. Amorette Banman came in first overall, she beat out some Americans so we're always happy when we beat the Americans, and she got gold overall. Additionally with her, we have Shakira Oxley-Tsai that came in bronze overall and she had some bronze medals. Jacklyn and Jewel Lyn Smith did really well in the 69 kilo class, Leo Matura did really well in the 74 kilo men's, and Kaylon came in second for his class, the 120 class, and I came in bronze overall in the 105."
"Mary will attest to you her own story about her preparing for this event, she had injuries, she had stress going into this competition but she overcame it all. I think before this competition, she didn't do any squats, like almost 2 weeks prior to this competition and she still secured all three of her squats at the event and came in bronze overall."
"The Belize Powerlifting Association does its best to try and fund its athletes by securing sponsorship and we're very thankful for BTB and the Sports Council through BWS, they've been major supporters for us every year since reaching out to them and due to them we were able to pay participating, anti-doping fee, and secure the tracksuits we are currently wearing from last year. Of course, there's more work to be done in promoting the sport, like we mentioned before, we're hosting the event in 2026 and like I said, since it's growing every year, this year, there was an increase of about 100 athletes, next year it will increase again, and in 2026 when we host it in San Pedro they're predicting anywhere to about 500 people so for those interested in sponsoring the sport, it's highly competitive, it's growing rapidly, and by the time we have it here in Belize, it'll be far beyond our imaginations."
And we also spoke with one of the athletes who brought home the silver, as well as the junior who got the gold.
Kaylon Godoy, Powerlifter/Silver
"It was an experience, I really appreciated that. Last year we didn't do as good as we thought we would so this year was a redemption. It grew a lot, so this year I think we had over 400 athletes from various countries, so the competition was very stiff but I managed to place second overall. I got gold in squats, silver in benchpress, and then silver in deadlift and then silver overall."
"The only country that got me was USA, but I mean it's USA so the pool to pull from is huge but Belize did really well in this stage. One of my juniors, she got gold overall and beat out the USA athletes as well so it was a very good year for us."
Amorette Banman, Powerlifter/Gold
"It feels really good, like she said, it's months of prep for one day and the last competition that I did internationally, it went really bad so I guess this was my redemption so get, to bring home the gold. And then also, powerlifting isn't only the getting stronger physically, it's also really mental sport, so if you're not strong mentally, it's hard. Like failing lifts in the gym gets you in your head, it's like do I deserve to be on the platform, do I deserve to be competing with these athletes. And then also, as a teenager, your friends are gonna be like, no you should go out, you should go eat, you should go to parties, but no, if you're in the sport, like she said, it's your life."
Usher said that they are aspiring to compete in the world championships next year, which will be held in Chemnitz, Germany.
