Topic: News: John Donahue and Alex McInnes up to challenge

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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John Donahue and Alex McInnes up to challenge
Pair of athletes collect medals at Pan American Masters Championships
By Andy Jasner

The sport of weightlifting gets more challenging as the years pass. It also gets more satisfying when you continue to win medals.

Wilmington's John Donahue and Alex McInnes each left with a medal at the 2007 Pan American Masters Weightlifting Championships held July 14-15 in El Paso, Texas. Donahue, 45, captured a gold medal in the 45-49 age division while McInnes, 43, took home a silver medal in the 40-44 age group.

This was impressive considering 16 countries were represented from North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean Islands.

"When you're younger, you're more obsessed with first-place finishes, but when you're older, you see them for what they are and it means more because of your age," Donahue said. "I don't feel 45, but I know my body is."

[attachimg=1]
Wilmington's John Donahue, 45, won a gold medal in the 45-49
age division at the '07 Pan American Masters Weightlifting
Championships held July 14-15 in El Paso, Texas. Donahue's
winning lift was a clean & jerk of 352 pounds, an American record.
Photo by Alex McInnes.

McInnes actually tore a muscle in his right quad after his first attempt.

"I was fortunate to get the medal on the first lift because I got injured," McInnes said. "I never get injured so this was a surprise to me."

Donahue's winning lift was a clean and jerk of 352 pounds, an American record. Donahue, who was named Outstanding Lifter of the event, beat out silver medalist Gary Lewis of Canada and Efrain Flores of Venezuela.

McInnes had a 264-pound clean and jerk, which helped place him second behind American Mike Mullins.

Donahue and McInnes were coached by Dave Crew, a former competitor. Crew met Donahue in 1978 and became friends with McInnes about a year later.

As the Pan American competition inched closer, they would collaborate on training ideas and techniques to maximize their potential.

"We used to train together at the YMCA years ago and we stayed in touch," Crew said. "I talked to them before the event and they did well."

Ironically, Donahue hasn't been weightlifting consistently his whole life. He took a 14-year hiatus between the ages of 23-37 to concentrate on his family life. That all changed on a whim one day.

"There was one day where I just felt like trying it again," said Donahue, who also won a gold medal at the 2002 Pan American Masters Weightlifting Championships in Toronto. "You're either all the way in or all the way out and I wanted to be back all the way in."

[attachimg=2]
Wilmington's Alex McInnes, 43, took the silver medal in the 40-44
age division at the Pan American Masters Championships with a clean
and jerk of 264 pounds. McInnes earned the medal  despite tearing a
quad muscle on his first attempt. Photo by Alex McInnes.

McInnes wants to be back all the way in, but his quad injury could slow his short-term progress. He's unsure about competing in an American Masters event Nov. 10 in Queens, N.Y.

"I've been told by a physical therapist that it could take more months than I think, so I don't know about the event," McInnes said. "I'll have to wait and see."

He will be back weightlifting at some point, though.

"I began body building in 1978 and I've been doing this or weightlifting, or however you name it, since then," McInnes said. "I'm a little older now, that's the only difference."

[John Donahue]

Chris, 
 
Thank you for the free press. You did a better job than the local news paper that printed it. 
 
John Donahue