Phillip Sue

Aucklander Phillip Sue was an important and enduring figure in a golden era of New Zealand weightlifting.

Sue, born in Hastings in 1946, arrived on the weightlifting scene just as Don Oliver, the sport’s hero of the 1960s, was leaving the stage. He was a team-mate of notable lifters like John Bolton, Tony Ebert, Bruce Cameron, Graham May, Brian Marsden, Brian Duffy and Rory Barrett, and was still winning national titles as late as 1990, when they were all long retired.

He won titles in three weight divisions. At 67.5kg he won in 1972, 1974, 1976 and 1979. In the 75kg division, he was champion in 1975, 1977, 1978 and 1980. And in the 82.5kg class he won in 1981, 1984, and 1990 when, remarkably, he was 44!

Sue competed at three Commonwealth Games and one Olympics.

His first taste of the big-time was at the 1974 Christchurch Commonwealth Games, when he was 5th in the lightweight (67.5kg) division with a total of 250kg. He snatched 110kg, so was in equal 2nd place at the halfway point, and jerked 140kg for a total of 150kg. George Newton of England won with a total of 260kg and Sue’s countryman, Bruce Cameron was 3rd. Sue narrowly failed with an attempt at 147.5kg, which would have lifted him into the silver medal position. The spectators at the Christchurch Town Hall certainly appreciated his efforts.

Sue improving all the time, was chosen in the lightweight division for the Montreal Olympics two years later, but failed to post a weight in the snatch and was eliminated.

He went to the 178 Edmonton Commonwealth Games and returned home with a hard-won bronze medal in the lightweight division, after snatching 115kg and jerking 147.5kg, for a total of 262.5kg.

Though by now well and truly in the veteran stage, he made the team for the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games and, moving up to the 75kg (middleweight) class, was 6th. He snatched 125kg and jerked 160kg for a total of 285kg.

Over the years Sue had other notable successes – he won Oceania titles in Brisbane in 1981 and Apia in 1982, both times at middleweight.

He also competed in two world championships, in 1974 and 1975, though weightlifting administration regarded the 1976 Montreal Olympics as that year’s world championship, so it could be said he competed at three.

In the lightweight division in 1974 at Manila, he was 12th with a total of 265kg. The following year at Moscow he slipped to 20th, though his total improved to 267.5kg.

Besides winning New Zealand championships at 40, Sue also focused on powerlifting, winning a national title in 1983.