DEION Nurse was scheduled to officiate from this week at the Islamic Solidarity Weightlifting Championships, scheduled to run until next week in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The seasoned official and athlete, who is a Category Two referee, was set to join officials from the USA, Aruba, Venezuela among other nations after leaving Guyana on Thursday morning.

In the Central Asian country, Nurse is looking to do his best so that he can accelerate the process of becoming a Category One referee.

“I am happy to be selected; I hope to do the best job possible. I am looking forward to moving up to Category 1.”

Nurse, who is a back-to-back Masters winner of the Phillips and Springer Classic Caribbean (Weightlifting) Championships (2017, 2018), has been licensed to referee since 2003, but only began refereeing last year.

Since the local governing body is required to cover the cost of attending, travelling to meets is no easy task. Weightlifting does not get the corporate support as some other sports, which means that officials are faced with difficult decisions when sending teams or persons overseas.

“Our federation is required to cover our cost of attending, but you know how things are. So I have been able to get some assistance on the occasions that I attended. That is the case of this one as well.”

Owing to this, Nurse will look to make good on his opportunity.

“So I have to gain some more exposure and then sometime soon I’ll write the test.”

“You need to show your competence before you are given the opportunity to write the exam.”

The pass mark for the Category One exam is 90%.