1985 - 1994 The Final Period

THE FINAL PERIOD 1986 - 1994

Media, International events, sponsorships, school promotion and mass participation.

My last eight years as a coach and administrator in Australia was from 1986 to 1994.

Perhaps this period was the culmination of my previous 20 years in coaching and administration. The school program which I initiated in 1979 reached in 1987 - 27,000 schoolboys and schoolgirls lifting in Victoria and 47, 000 in Australia.

Major events were held during this period of time, the last eight years, events of this magnitude were impossible to imagine. It was impossible to imagine that Australia could hold such events. The World Cup with 5,000 people at the stadium in 1986. The World Super Heavyweight which saw the biggest lift ever lifted in history by Leonid Taranenko. The Commonwealth Championships in 1987. The last Moomba International in 1990. The Barcelona Challenge in 1992. The 1993 World Championships. 17 gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada. All culminating in this exciting 8 years period,

Let alone the arrival of the ‘Wild Bunch’ in Melbourne in 1991. Sevdalin Marinov, Kiril Kounev, Stefan Botev, Blagoi Blagoev and Nicu Vlad. And the enormous sponsorship that weightlifting received during this eight-year period.

The School Program in 1986 was at the height of its success. Victoria had 119 clubs. And 27,000 school students doing weightlifting. St. Bedes College brought in to Hawthorn, possibly one of the greatest weightlifters I have ever coached. Marcus Stephen. He was a Nauruan student studying in Melbourne. Marcus started at Hawthorn in 1986 and retired in 2002. In those years he won almost ten Oceania titles, seven Commonwealth Gold Medals, one World Championships medal, and competed at three Olympic Games.

Marcus Clean & Jerk 172.5kg in the 59kg category at the 1999 World Championships in Athens winning a silver medal.

Marcus addressing the United Nations Forum as President of the Republic of Nauru

Marcus with President Obama and Michelle Obama at the White House.

He became an icon for the sport of weightlifting in the region. He was the main reason for my family and I moving to Nauru in 1994. Once his schooling was finished in Australia, Marcus returned to Nauru and he became the Treasurer of the Nauru Olympic Committee, and thereafter President of the Nauru Olympic Committee, President of Nauru Weightlifting Federation and then in 2008 to now, he has been the President of the Oceania Weightlifting Federation. I suppose the highest honour was in 2008 when he became the President of the Republic of Nauru. An outstanding achievement

Ian Russo

Category 60kg Total 240kg

GRADE (A)

Simon Heffernan

Category 100kg Total 340kg

Elite Standard

2006 Commonwealth Games Silver medallist.

Tony Pisani

Category 60kg Total 240kg

GRADE (A)

Keiran Larkins

Category 60kg Total 220kg

GRADE (A)

Craig Blythman

Category 75kg Total 310kg

ELITE GRADE

Ian Patterson

Category 67kg Total 250kg

GRADE (A)

Matthew Curtain

Category 100kg Total 330kg

Matthew started his lifting career in the second half of the 1980’s at Hawthorn. He was a student from De La Salle College and product of the School Clean & Jerk program.

Very committed to the sport at all levels. He became an elite lifter competing in the 100kg category. His best total was 330kg. He represented Australia at many international events.

Once Matthew retired as an athlete, he took over the role of CEO of Australian Weightlifting. He was the Weightlifting Manager at 2006 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Australia.

He was also the Weightlifting Manager at the 2012 London Olympic Games.

Thereafter he took the position of Sports Director of the Commonwealth Games Federation in London.

Today, Matthew is the CEO of British Weightlifting and he is also an Executive Board member of the International Weightlifting Federation.

WOMEN.

Alison Tuddenham

87kg Category

Another of Hawthorn first female lifter Alison competed for Australian at the 1993 World Championships held in Melbourne and placed 8th in the 87+ kg category.

Sally Penson

76kg Category

Another Hawthorn female lifter set Commonwealth records during her short career in the sport. She placed 5th at the 1993 World Championship.

Michelle Randall

69kg category

One of Australia's greatest female lifters. She started at Hawthorn under Paul Coffa. Once Paul shifted to Nauru she followed him and trained in Nauru in preparation for many major events. Many times, Australian and Oceania Champion. Placed 6th at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

In 1986, I organised in Melbourne the WORLD CUP. The event was held at the Melbourne Glass House with 5,000 people attending. Naim Suleymanoglu set a world record and this was the first world record in weightlifting in Australia since the 1956 Olympic Games. Naim Suleymanoglu the Bulgarian dynamo broke the world record and the day after he defected to Turkey causing catastrophic problems between Bulgaria and Australia and Lilly and I in particular. Naim defected to Turkey and two years later he won a gold medal for Turkey at the Seoul Olympic Games creating six world records and another gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and a third gold at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Naim World record in Melbourne 1986

Kristen, Suleymanoglu & Varbanov

Weightlifting started to attract large sponsorship from ‘Samboy Chips’ from Musashi, Esanda, Buffalo Sports, and others. Mainly due to the international tournaments which were run at Hawthorn and Canberra.

In 1987 in Canberra, the Commonwealth Championships were conducted. This attracted huge television coverage. In 1998 during the Australian Bicentennial, I was able to organize the Super Heavyweight Challenge which attracted the strongest super heavies in the world to Melbourne and Canberra. In Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport, Leonid Taranenko established two world records – clean & jerk and total. 266kg clean & jerk, and 475kg total. These records stood for over 30 years. Possibly one of the highlights of my sporting career

Leonard Taranenko sets new world records with 266kg clean & Jerk and Total of 475kg in 1988.

Taranenko & Alexander Kurlovich at Hawthorn in 1988. Trying to sit in a Lamborghini. The two world strongest supers.

The 1990 Moomba Weightlifting International held at the Victorian Arts Centre, was another brilliant event. Basically, organised by all Hawthorn lifters. The event saw world records established by Bulgarian and Russian lifters.

1990 Moomba International held at the Melbourne Art Centre. 3 world records were broken during the event.

In 1987 a cheque made to the Australian Weightlifting Federation of $600,000 was presented to Paul & Sam Coffa from Samboy Chips.

THE WILD BUNCH:

In February 1991, saw the arrival of the ‘Wild Bunch’. And what a coup this was. Attracting Nicu Vlad – World and Olympic Champion, Blagoi Blagoev – World and Olympic Champion, Sevdalin Marinov – World and Olympic Champion, Stefan Botev – World Champion, Kiril Kounev – World Junior Champion. All of them made Melbourne their home and all of them trained with me at Hawthorn. The wild bunch attracted a lot of publicity. The Victorian Championships in 1991, saw a full house with standing room only. Almost every television network attended

Nicu Vlad 100kg Cat.

Blagoi Blagoey 90kg Cat.

Sevdalin Marinov 52kg Cat.

Stefan Botev 110kg Cat.

Kiril Kounev 82.5kg Cat.

The large crowd at the 1991 Victorian Championships held at the Hawthorn Recreation Centre.

In 1992 the Barcelona Challenge attracted the Barcelona Olympic Games Gold and Silver medallist. They competed head to head in a black tie gala night. Direct telecast by Channel 2 for three full hours. The event was seen also in China. World records were broken that evening

Tudor Casapu

Ronny Weller

Naim Suleymanoglu

1992 Barcelona medallist competing in Melbourne from left: Tudor Casapu, Ronny Weller and Naim Suleymanoglu

The Gala night at the 1992 Barcellona Challenge

Paul Coffa and Naim Suleymanoglu in 1992

THE 1993 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS -MELBOURNE

Some of the volunteers at the 1993 World Championships in Melbourne

Greek crowd watching Pyrros Dimas at the 1993 Worlds.

1993 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

In 1993 the World Weightlifting Championships was held for the first time in Australia in Melbourne. What an event this was. The television coverage was phenomenal. Over 200 volunteers were involved with the World Championships Something that you do not see in this day and age. The Melbourne Exhibition Building for the 10-day duration was packed with spectators. Pyrros Dimas attracted the vast Greek community and Naim Suleymanolgu pulled in a very large Turkish community. And for the first time, the event had corporate boxes built around the platform. Australia won one gold and three silver and three bronze medals. The outcome of this successful event was a huge sponsorship from Telstra to Australia Weightlifting. 90% of the work was done by the Hawthorn machine. Something which will never be forgotten

Kiril Kounev wins bronze for Australia at the 1993 World Championships.

Stefan Botev wins Gold in the C& Jerk for Australia in the 110kg category

The Turkish crowd watching Naim Suleymanoglu winning the world championships.

The final chapter before Lilly and I left Hawthorn and Australia, was the very successful Commonwealth Games, in Victoria - Canada. It was the work over many, many years, that culminated in outstanding success. The Hawthorn lifters finished up with the following:

Sevdalin Marinov – 1 gold, 2 silver
Marcus Stephen (Nauru) – Hawthorn – 3 gold
Damian Brown – Hawthorn – 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze
Kiril Kounev Hawthorn 3 Gold
Harvey Goodman – Hawthorn – 3 gold
Nicu Vlad – Hawthorn – 3 gold
Stefan Botev – Hawthorn – 2 gold, 1 silver
Steven Kettner – Hawthorn – 1 gold, 2 silver

17 Gold, 6 silver, 1 bronze.

On the last day of lifting, in front of about 50 journalists and television crews, I announced my retirement from Australian Weightlifting. And I announced that my family was moving to Nauru. In the Australian parliament, at question time, a question was directed to the Minister of Sport, ‘what did Nauru pay that Australia could not afford to pay to retain Paul Coffa ?’

It wasn’t the money – it was the challenge.

These are some of the lifters who unfortunately I do not have photos of , they trained at Hawthorn.

Chris Wain, Sam Shaddock, Paul Grace, Alan Mercer, Chris Sinclair, Stuart Patrick, Richard Dove, Matthew Kirwan, Peter Karananos, David Oswell, Frank Del Monaco, John Way, John Smith, Sam Brooker, P. Heal, A.Hynes, C.Bodas, J.McCarthy, A.Young, B.Hunt, R.Coleman, N.Connolly, S.Flynn, M.Goodwin, E.Walker, S.Wain, J.Cartwright, M.Sheedy, A.Corteling, D.Harrison,

The brilliant Hawthorn Weightlifting Team of 1992

From left: Stefan Botev, Paul Coffa, Damian Brown, Steven Kettner, Brian McNicoll, Stephen Haldun, Harvey Goodman, David Doherty, Nicu Vlad, Joshua Brooke, Blagoi Blagoev Craig Blythman , Ian Russo, Charles Garzarella, Kiril Kounev, Peter Ikosidekas, Sevdalin Marinov, John McNamara and Martin leach.