Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 26, 1993 TAG: 9307260288
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
\ Ann Gardner was on a court, not in one, Sunday morning.
And she wasn't lifting a briefcase, but a barbell.
That's not to say she was out of place.
"I am reputed for doing male-dominated things," said Gardner, Roanoke's assistant commonwealth's attorney.
She was one of a handful of women in the Commonwealth Games of Virginia's powerlifting competition on the basketball floor at Northside High School. She also hunts, mostly deer, with a black-powder rifle.
The Cave Spring High School graduate used to swim and run track, too.
Getting the idea there's a common thread here?
"I'm pretty aggressive," she said. "It's just part of my personality. I used to get in trouble in school for it."
Not big trouble, she assures. But the 27-year-old, who went to law school at Wake Forest, definitely has a heady streak.
"I'm a fighter," she said. "I'm just competitive. We call it `personal conviction' in the courtroom."
And her attitude as a lifter?
"It's exactly the same," she said.
Gardner's best Sunday was a 110-pound bench press, 25 pounds under her personal best and five under what she's hoisted in regular workouts at the YMCA. It was only her second competition, the first since she entered a local meet in Bowling Green, Ky., when she was an undergraduate student at Western Kentucky.
She's out of shape, she said, but entered the Commonwealth Games meet at the urging of Roanoke Police detective Bob Thompson, an accomplished lifter who loaned Gardner wrist-wraps and a bodysuit for the event.
Gardner didn't beat her personal record, but did beat the weightlifter's benchmark: At 5 feet 2 and 106 pounds, she lifted more than she weighs.
"I always get pumped for this kind of thing."
Powerlifting was one of four events that closed the 1993 Games. Cross country, mountain biking and a mixed-doubles tennis tournament were the other last-day events.
At Crystal Spring Park, Carey Rollins of Leesburg and Gary Pulino of Herndon upset the top two seeds en route to the gold medal in the mixed doubles tennis tournament. Rollins and Pulino beat top-seeded Lynda Leffler of Rocky Mount and Nelson Prillaman of Collinsville to gain the gold-medal match, then beat second-seeded Joan Aliff of Radford and Tracy Sledd of Roanoke 7-5, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4.
The Games' main show ended last weekend, when competition was held in 27 sports at sites mostly around the Roanoke Valley.
by CNB