SURREY’S Lions Weightlifting Club’s Jeenat Billen won two silver medals for Canada at the Youth Pan Am Weightlifting Championship held at Palmira, Colombia, recently.
Billen came first in the “snatch” category as well as in the total in her 69 kg category.
Raghbir Sahota from Lions Weightlifting Club represented Canada as coach to accompany Billen.
Makhan Sandhu, well-known head coach of Lions Weightlifting Club praised Billen’s performance who achieved her best total at this competition. He noted that this was her third international tournament. She participated twice at the Youth Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship – in Malaysia in 2013 where she bagged a silver medal, and in Pune, India, in 2015 where she won a bronze medal.
“This time she also qualified for the Commonwealth Championship which was held in Australia but we decided to skip that because it was too close to the Pan Am Championship,” said Sandhu.
Jeenat Billen is the daughter of famous wrestler, Harjit Billen (owner of Rustam Wrestling Club) and is the younger sister of Helena Billen who had participated in the Junior World weightlifting championship and also won a bronze medal at the Junior Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship in Malaysia in 2013.
Sandhu also thanked fellow coaches Raghbir Sahota and Rajinder Mahey for their hard work in bringing these athletes up to this level.
Jeenat Billen, along with her Lions Weightlifting Club teammates Ishmeen Dhesi and Hana Dhillon will be participating in the Junior National Weightlifting Championship in Halifax on January 20, 2018.