Yukon weightlifter Jeane Lassen continues to collect the hardware this season.

After claiming two silver medals at the Pan American Championships in Colombia last month, Lassen grabbed a gold medal in the 69-kilogram class at the national championships Sunday.

She lifted 90 kg in the snatch and 117.5 kg in the clean and jerk for a total of 207.5 kg. The clean and jerk and overall totals were both personal bests for Lassen.

'I did a personal best for this year, so I'm very happy,' she said in an interview from Montreal this morning. 'There was that competition in Colombia that was hard conditions and just recovering from the travel was hard.

'Three weeks isn't enough time to maintain your peak performance level and it's not enough time to start over and retrain either.'

Lassen also finished third overall out of every weight class, which made her an alternate for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

'I wanted to be one of the alternates so it was an all or nothing sort of thing,' she said. 'There are three alternates, but one of them is injured. I guess you never know what can happen.'

Lassen said the final athlete rosters for the Olympics must be in by August 12, so she will know for sure by then whether she will make the trip to Athens. Barring anything unusual, Marise Turcotte, who also represented the country at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, is scheduled to lift for Canada in Athens.

Lassen hopes to have one more shot at the Olympics, in 2008. While she's not sure how long her body will allow her to compete, she would like to stay on for the next four years.

'As long as you can improve, that's pretty motivating,' she said. 'Right now, I'm getting government funding for school while I'm training, so I would like to stay in school as long as that's happening.

'Maybe I'll come out a doctor,' she laughed.

Yukon's Emily Quarton, who also competed at the Pan Ams in Colombia last month, placed fourth in the 63-kg class at nationals this past weekend. Quarton just recently returned from the junior world championships in Belarus.

'She did very well considering,' said Lassen. 'Her competitors didn't go to any of those other competitions, so they had that edge over her.'

One of the most interesting stories which emerged at nationals came from a Manitoba athlete.

'One girl from Manitoba did an amazing competition,' Lassen explained. 'She lifted 300 pounds in the clean and jerk, which is 136.5 kilos. That's the most a Canadian female has ever lifted in the clean and jerk. And the reason she did it is because she wanted to get a dog.

'Her fiance said, The day you clean and jerk 300 pounds, I'll let you get a dog.' So she got it and then she went right to the pet store and picked out a dog. And she named it after the city where the competition was held, in Valleyfield. The dog's name is Valley.'

While Lassen has no plans for a new pet, she's now training for her next competition the college and university championships on July 2. The Yukon weightlifter doesn't usually have three competitions in such a short span, but because of the Pan Am Games this year, nationals were moved around.

'Usually Pan Ams aren't as important, so you don't have to go' she said. 'But this year they were an Olympic qualifier.'

After the college and university championships, Lassen will be heading home to the Yukon for a well-deserved break from competition, although she does plan on training full time.

'I'm very excited,' she said. 'Last time I went home was for the Western Canadians, which was in March 2003.

'I don't have my plane ticket yet, but I hope to come up for three weeks to a month.'