GUYANA’S biggest medal haul on the day so far came on Friday at the 2026 South American Powerlifting Championships in Santiago, Chile when the quartet of Duarte Hetsberger MP, and Matthew Maycock who both competed in the 83kg Masters 1 class, Demetri Chan who battled in the 83kg Open category and Olsen Batson (93kg Junior) racked in a total of 8 medals.
This performance more than doubled the nation’s collection of medals at these championships which are hosted by the Chilean Federation and run by the South American Powerlifting Federation (Fesupo).
It was a bumper day for the lads from the Land of Many Waters, and despite some minor niggles, the nation’s strongmen on the day delivered heartening performances to take the medal haul so far to 14 from 6.
Leading the charge was Hetsberger who copped overall silver in the 83kg Masters 1 division along with silver in the benchpress and bronze medals in the squat and deadlifts.
Going into the deadlifts, Hetsberger was third overall but did enough to topple Dennis Chafloque of Peru who was in the top spot having to settle for the overall bronze, Uruguay’s Richard Marquez who was placed second pulled off a 250kg deadlift to take the overall gold with a total of 582.5kg.
Hetsberger’s total was 575kg (squat 195kg; benchpress 140kg; deadlift 240kg), Chaflougue 565kg and Maycock, 555kg (squat 205kg; benchpress 105kg; deadlift 245kg). It was an encouraging international introduction for Maycock who just missed a single lift, his third benchpress attempt of 110kg, ending 8 for 9.
Battling in the 83kg open division was Demetri Chan who took the benchpress silver medal despite ending 5th with a total of 620kg (squat 215kg; benchpress 150kg; deadlift 255kg).
Closing out the day was Olsen Batson in the Junior 93kg division against six other competitors from Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile. Batson did not have the best of starts as his first squat saw the bar slipping off his back just before he got the command from Chief Referee, Guyanese Gordon Spencer to return the weights to the rack.
This did not deter Batson as his second attempt saw him powering to 275kg which was good enough to land him the bronze medal, only bettering him was Uruguay’s Alejo Ramiro Brunz with 290.5 won gold, his effort also setting a new record with the silver going to Brazil’s Davi Valdez with 285kg.
Batson’s best benchpress of 142.5kg and deadlift of 240kg for a total of 657.5kg saw him taking the 6th place overall.
Team Guyana has amassed 14 medals thus far, three gold, seven silver and four bronze.
