Yelling out "that's a personal best" quickly became a common occurrence for Dubbo Barbell Club president Adrian Carey last weekend.
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The club hosted the Olympic Lifting competition on Saturday at CrossFit Dubbo, the first major weightlifting competition of its kind to be held in the city.
Carey was "over the moon" with how the competition played out, and not just because of the huge numbers put up across the three divisions.
"There was probably 15 times I called out 'that was a PB' as someone went past and that was really nice," Carey said.
"Just the confidence you see people develop as well. When they make two lifts and they realise they can have a crack at a third heavy one, that's really empowering for the people.
"Watching them guys I've trained over the last few months, just their confidence as people as they get stronger and more comfortable in the group is nice to see too.
"Even if it's not on the bar, there's more confident movements and people are more confident in themselves, and that's lovely."
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Roughly 30 competitors took part on Saturday during the one men's competition and two separate women's competitions.
Carey said that was the perfect number to keep the day flowing smoothly and there were a number of highlights across all divisions.
Bathurst's Patrick Halsey was one of the standouts while hometown lifter Brody Chapman also impressed.
"Patrick did a 115kg snatch and a 147kg clean and jerk and it looked well within himself and could have done more," Carey said.
"Brody did a 145kg clean and jerk and I haven't seen him lift more than 110kg in months. He just really thrived in that atmosphere."
Some of the lower numbers achieved still meant plenty to Carey and those in attendance.
The first competitor of the day was a young girl roughly 10-years-old and seeing her give it a real crack was one of the highlights while another woman, who is a relative newcomer to the sport, doubled her personal best after starting out with a 20kg effort.
"I was so happy about it," Carey said, adding the positive feedback he received from all involved made it more special.
Halsey and those from Bathurst indicated they're keen to start their own club and push for more serious competitions in the future while spectators and volunteers also spoke glowingly of Saturday's event.
"I'm pretty optimistic it's going to grow and not just in Dubbo, but all the Central West," Carey said.
"Having so many people sign up and so many people watch was good. The rain probably hurt a bit but we had good crowd the whole way through and I definitely think we'll be doing one of these a year and it might morph into two."
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