Royston weightlifter’s Olympic Games memories

A WEIGHTLIFTER and two-time Olympian will be watching on with interest as London 2012 gets underway tonight (Friday).

Royston resident Tony Morgan had two successive fourth place finishes, at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984 and four years later in Seoul.

His achievements came despite suffering from epilepsy, which forced him to leave school at 16 and so focus on weightlifting.

Since lifting competition weights of 20 kilos, Mr Morgan went on to be the youngest British champion at the age of 15, when he won all five titles.

Following on from his Olympic endeavours, he qualified as Britain’s top middleweight champion in 1992, before picking up a bronze medal in 1998 at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

Mr Morgan is now classed as a veteran master, and is back in training for the 2014 Commonwealth Games to be held in Glasgow.