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Weightlifting in Ealing Stars shining brightly. That’s certainly the case at Stars for the Future. An Olympic Weightlifting Club based at Perivale Athletics Track. NP Reporter Michael Holmes meets Vindhya Gobin from Stars for the Future. Let me start by asking When did the club start? The club started in 2011 with 6 clubs running in 6 West London Boroughs. In 2016, we built and opened our gym in Perivale where all the lifters from the 6 clubs were transferred to. Why did it start? Kazem Panjavi, the club owner was a former Olympian and obtained a number of other achievements whilst he was a competitive athlete. His passion for weightlifting continued after he stopped being a competitive athlete and he now enjoys using all the knowledge and skills he acquired to train and develop athletes at all levels. This led him to set up the club. How many locations do you operate at? We operate in one location, Perivale. How many members do you have to date? We currently have 15 members. Have any members taken part in major competitions like the Olympics or Commonwealth Games or even Local & National events? Currently, we have 7 competitive athletes in the club who compete at local and national competitions. Our head coach, Kian Panjavi was a silver medallist at the Commonwealth Youth Games that took place in 2015. Since the club started we have become the British Champion in the U13, U17, U18, U20, U23 categories and the Senior Championships. Has the club itself been awarded any accolades? We were awarded Club of the Year in 2014 by British Weightlifting - BWLA. Are there any well-known people associated with the club? Our competitive athletes along with our 12
coaches are all well known in the UK weightlifting community. The club owner Kazem Panjavi is very well known within and outside the UK. What are the costs of membership and are there categories for example age groups and beginner & advanced etc? Our membership prices vary from £24.99 - £64.99 per month depending on your age and how many sessions you would like to attend. We also offer drop in sessions which are priced at £10 per session. What are the benefits of Weight Lifting for individuals and for the residents of Ealing? There are a number of benefits from weightlifting such as strength gain, increase in power, speed and jumping ability, weight loss, improvement in flexibility, core strength, posture, stability and fitness levels. Have you been affected by Covid-19? We implemented strong controls in our gym at the start of the pandemic therefore we did not have any COVID-19 cases whilst we were open before Government instructed gyms to close. Although gyms can now reopen, Ealing Council is using a phased reopening approach for their leisure facilities across the borough, therefore we are still waiting to hear when we can reopen our gym. Like Putting the People of Ealing First
all other businesses, our concern is the financial strain the pandemic will cause therefore once we are able to reopen, it is important to us to raise awareness about our club. What plans does the club have for the future? We will continue to develop all our athletes from beginners to advance to non-competitive to competitive to help them achieve their goals. We want to maintain our current high standard of achievements from our competitive athletes. We would like to raise more awareness about our club and welcome and encourage new members to join and participate in the sport. Lastly, we hope to continue Kazem Panjavi’s legacy by keeping the club open until he returns from a head coaching role in Odisha. More information can be found at: www.starsforthefuture.com
