The event was held at Toglyatti, near Samara in southern Russia, and before he left Colin said:

"I am of the generation where southern Russia was a weightlifters Mecca, so it is nice to finally get the chance to go there. It's just a shame I had to wait until I was a veteran before I could qualify."

Hannah found himself in a competitive class with lifters from Russia, Germany, Belarus, Norway and the Ukraine ahead of him in the rankings.
He went as part of a six-strong Scottish team (three men and three women) and did not travel with too many expectations, but after claiming a creditable fourth place, he said on his return:

"The result from the European Masters was better than expected. I got into a tight match for fourth place with Klaus Seitz of Germany and Gunnar Reiakvam of Norway.

"My coach and I had a look at the starting totals for the lifters and quickly concluded that the first three lifters were out of my reach (unless one of the top three failed to make total) but fourth place was possible with the German and Norweigan both beatable.

"The review of the starting totals showed that these lifters seemed to be detter in the snatch than I would, but were weaker in the clean and jerk which is my better lift.

"I had planed to take my first Snatch at 70kg, with Gunnar sttrting at 75 and Klaus starting at 76. The decision was taken to increase my first snatch to 73kg and, if sucessful, take a second attenmpt at 77 kg.

"We hoped this would put the competition under pressure. It worked, my first attempt was sucessful. Gunnar missed his first attempt. He then missed his second attempt and rather than take a third attempt at this weight and give Klaus and myself too much of a head start, he decided to move up to 76kg for his third and final attempt.

"This brought out Klaus who was sucessful with his 76kg. Gunnar now needed his third attempt of 76kg to stay in the competition but again he missed his lift.

"This meant that the fourth place seemed to between the German and myself. I took my second attempt of 77kg and again was sucessful. Klaus failed to hold either his second or third attemp so I was ahead if him in the snatch.

"I then had to sit and wait as the three front runners, Mykhaylo Burkov from the Ukraine, Holger Worm (last year's champion) from Germany and Albert Tsimerbayeu from Belarus completed their snatches.

"My fourth place was certain after my first clean and jerk as I started with 100kg which was more than Klaus managed to finish with.

"A second atttempt of 105kg increased the gap between myself and the German but was never going to be enough to catch any if the top three.

"My only chance of a medal was if one of them failed to get any of their three attempts at a clean and jerk. I could only sit there and watch as each one managed to get their lifts in with the Belarussian winning the match.

"I may not have picked up a medal but the fourth place was higher than was expected as the pre-match rankings placed me in sixth place. It also gave me experience of a country that was certainly run very differently to western Europe.

"The journey back gave me plenty of time to think about the club and its future. The club is less than five years old, but in that time it has lifters qualifying for the Scottish Championships for four of those five years and has picked up a string of titles."

Currently the club has three lifters with Scottish titles - Neil Jordan holds the Scottish Open title, Graeme Laidlaw and Colin hold Scottish Masters titles and Colin also holds the Ulster Open title.

These three lifters also rank in Scotland's top 50, with Graeme in 39th place with 172 points, Neil in 36th place with 178 and Colin in 17th place with 239.

What the club needs now is some younger lifters allowing future development. Colin has already qualified for this year's Scottish Championships, but is aware that age is catching up on him and does not have too many senior matches left.

The club trains on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 6-8pm in the Swan Centre and new members are welcome.