Chris Murray ready for new challenges after Commonwealth success

By Oli Dickson Jefford, Sportsbeat

Guildford weightlifter Chris Murray insists he is ready for fresh challenges after a perfect Commonwealth campaign in Birmingham last summer.

Murray, 24, won the biggest title of his career in front of a passionate home crowd in the second city, breaking the previous Games record to snatch gold on his Commonwealth debut.

And though Murray now reflects on his 2022 with huge pride, he is now ready to overcome new hurdles in both 2023 and beyond.

The Surrey star said: “When you talk about things coming together, that’s the epitome.

“All of my lifts were successful, which is something I’ve only done two other times in my career - never at an international - personal bests and British records in the snatch, in the clean and jerk and in the total, and the games record as well.

“I just don’t think you could have had a better performance from myself, so I think that’s definitely the highlight.

“After the Commonwealth Games I went on and won a European U23 silver medal, the first male to ever win a total medal from GB which was really cool, and I went to my first World Championships after that. 2022 as a year has probably been the highlight.

“Hopefully 2023 and 2024 can be just as good. We’ve got the start of the Olympic qualification process which is super exciting. It's going to be hard work but it’s something I’m looking forward to.

“Along the way if I’m going to go I need to win medals at European Senior Championships, which again is something a British man hasn’t done in a very long time, so it’ll be quite cool to be one of the first people to do that.”

Murray was speaking during SportsAid Week at RBC offices in central London on #BeAGoodSportsAid Day as part of celebrations recognising ten years of their partnership with SportsAid, who provided him with financial support at the start of his career.

And he added: “RBC supported me directly through SportsAid from 2017-2018, which was at the start of my career when I was just trying to make a few senior teams and just getting into some senior competitions.

“At that point there wasn’t a huge amount of funding in British weightlifting. If I wanted to go to an international competition, I’d have to fund it myself and you’re talking around £2-2500 for these competitions.

“The financial support that RBC gave me really helped me to go to some of those competitions and compete.”

SportsAid Week 2023 took place from Monday 6 March to Sunday 12 March and was a dedicated week of fun and awareness-raising based around theme of accessibility and inclusion. Please visit www.sportsaid.org.uk