It’s Wayne’s way at European Masters weightlifting event

The champion weightlifter from Mullingar who set almost 30 new records last week says his success was down to mental preparation more than physical preparation.

Wayne Healy of Mullingar Weightlifting Club was at the European Masters Championships in the Netherlands and his list of achievements is seriously impressive: nine European records; eight world records; nine Irish masters records; two Irish senior records; Best Lifter Europe Masters, and to cap all that, the title of Grand Master – best overall competitor at the event.

“To be honest, when I was over there I was extremely relaxed,” Wayne told the Westmeath Examiner. “I had been carrying an injury going in to the competition, a wrist injury I’ve had for the last few years anyway, so I did a bit more mental preparation than physical preparation.

“Then, when I was there, I felt confident, I knew what I was going to do, and everything felt so easy on the day, everything clicked, and I think it was more because of the mental preparation that I had done in the build-up to it.

“When I was finished, I was very emotional. I am passionate about competing for my country, so there were a few little tears here and there.”

Wayne is a seasoned competitor, and now at the age of 45, shows no sign of slowing down. He has been a weightlifter for nearly 30 years, since he joined the famous Hercules Club in his native Dublin.

It’s the oldest gym in Ireland, going since 1935, and Wayne says he was “blessed, really, as a coach at the club was Tommy Hayden, a 1960 Olympian – so I got coached by the best and I was in the best club. I was just lucky to be surrounded by a good culture”.

Wayne was competitive from the beginning, and first represented Ireland at a Celtic Nations event. He is the most capped weightlifter in Irish history and has competed at seven world senior championships.

He says his recent success was down to his mental state, but he has put in the hard work from a young age. He trained seven to nine times a week as a teenager, and up to 12 times a week when he was a senior lifter on the world stage in his 20s.

Notwithstanding last week’s performance, Wayne will “always hold dearly” his European youth champion title from “20-odd years ago”. He also has top 10 rankings at world and European level as a senior.

He later stopped weightlifting for a time and credits his move to Mullingar just over a decade ago with renewing his enthusiasm. “I was helping out at the Harriers, and that reignited my interest, got the bug into me again for sport. I started coaching kids and I thought ‘I can really do this again’.”

What is now the successful Mullingar Weightlifting Club was born in a back room at the Mullingar Harriers clubhouse, where Wayne trained runners. He later acquired equipment and premises, and has built the club up to the level that a number of members have represented Ireland at youth level, including Stephen Boyce, Ailbhe Mulvey and Eric Bates.

By the middle of the last decade Wayne was again lifting at a serious level, and though he didn’t expect to win at the 2016 European masters in Germany, he did, in the 77kg category.

“I was just getting my feet wet again on the international stage and then I got the bug. I was 10kg heavier than I am at the moment, so after that I came back down to my competition weight,” Wayne said.

At the European masters in 2019 in Finland, he won again and broke the European record at 67kg. The pandemic subsequently halted competition till recently, but Wayne showed last week that the break did him no harm.

Returning to that record breaking performance in the Netherlands, he explained that it was all done within an hour and a half. “Weightlifting is like that, you only get one chance, and if it goes wrong, you’re gone, you don’t get a second chance – and that’s the reason the mental aspect of weightlifting is so important.

“Also, I am more of a technician, the same when I’m coaching, it’s all about technique, and that gives more longevity as an athlete, and makes injury less likely. My technique was good, my head was good, I was in the zone, and all I had to do was just do it!”

His immediate focus now is on the athletes from the Mullingar club lifting at the national senior championships in Dublin in four weeks’ time – Stephen Boyce, Ailbhe Mulvey, Colm Rigney, and Timmy Mescall (Wayne is also competing); and he is hoping to run a competition for kids in Mullingar before Christmas.

He won’t compete at international level again before next year, and is not sure yet if he will go to the 2022 world and European senior events: “They’re a different kettle of fish – you’re competing against professionals. I’d still fancy my chances, not a medal, but maybe top 10!”