The Webb brothers have strength in numbers when it comes to weightlifting.
All five brothers — Owen, Connell, Shea, Lochlan and Torin — have taken up the sport in the past five years and train at the Otago Weightlifting Association in Fryatt St.
Owen, the oldest, started weightlifting about four and a-half years ago after he saw the event at the Commonwealth Games and wanted to give it a go.
Since then, his four younger brothers have all slowly but surely joined him at the Otago club.
Connell, Shea, Lochlan and Torin took up the sport to improve their strength and power for the rugby field.
Connell and Shea started lifting about two and a- half years ago and Lochlan and Torin followed suit a couple of years after that.
While rugby may have started as the main focus, weightlifting has become a priority for the boys.
‘‘I enjoy it just as much as rugby, sometimes more,’’ Connell said.
Torin said he started weightlifting to help with the transition into high school rugby teams.
‘‘I started doing it for rugby reasons and I just thought it would be fun, which it is,’’ he said.
Owen trains five to six times aweek, while the others train together twice a week.
The brothers said they were not very competitive with each other, despite Shea and Torin being in the same weight class.
Shea was better at clean and jerk, while Torin was better at the snatch, Shea said.
The brothers, aside from Lochlan, plan to enter the club competition next month.
Owen, who won a bronze medal in the junior men’s 69kg class of the national competition last year, has his sights set on qualifying for this year’s Oceania competition.
To do so, he needs to lift a total of 216kg — 100kg in the snatch and 116kg in the clean and jerk.
‘‘I’m on track if I stay uninjured.’’
