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European Junior Powerlifting Championships 2007
After an early 6am start on Monday morning, the team arrived in Sofia, only to find that British Airways had lost Ben Banks' luggage...an unfortunate start. On top of this another visitor to Bulgaria, George Bush, caused endless delays and road blocks, leaving the team stuck sitting in a mini-bus in the Bulgaria heat.
On Tuesday Morning, Andy Ly put on his smart clothes and represented Great Britain at the opening ceremony, before everyone watched the first days lifting. It quickly became apparent that the judging was a lot stricter than that in domestic competition; if there was any doubt about the lifts, the red lights shined.
Wednesday saw the first two lifters in the Great Britain Team, James White in the 75kg class and Justin Martin in the 82.5kg class. Both lifters struggled to satisfy the referees with their depth in the squat, however both lifters were able to get lifts in, although well down on what they had hoped for and this clearly frustrated them when they came to the bench. On the deadlift, where there is less chance to fail on technicalities, James shined bringing home a Gold Medal on the lift, the first for the team. Both lifters achieved a total and earned some points for the team.
On
Thursday, saw some good news; efforts in England, particularly Rebecca
Yeoh's emotional pleas to
Friday was
Ben Banks' weight class; now with all his luggage he was all set to go.
His opening squat of 270kg flew up, only to be failed on depth. For his
second attempt on the same weight, he sunk it deep and eased it to
lockout, for t
On the final day, Kyle White in the 125kg+ class and Paul Whatson in the 125kg class lifted conservatively, both hitting 200kg in the squat, well below what they had been hoping for. Paul suffered a pull in his back in the squat, but was still able to go on a make a total with a 130kg bench press and a 230kg deadlift, earning some points for the team. Kyle was more successful, hitting a 175kg bench press and a 272.5kg deadlift, which won him a silver medal in the lift, and a bronze medal overall.
This competition proved to be a tough experience for both of our lifters, but hopefully they will be able to take some pointers away, and build on their technique for the selection for the World Championships.
Click here for the full results. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
Ben
Banks and Andy Ly were part of the eight man team of lifters entered
into European Junior Powerlifting Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria. For
all the eight lifters this was to be their first international
competition and this proved to be a tough experience for almost all of
the lifters.
British Airways, finally saw Ben Banks' luggage arrive in Sofia. It was
also Andy Ly and Mark Gregory's turns to compete. Andy Ly started with a
comfortable squat of 270kg, only to come up too quick and lose his
footing. In his second attempt on the same weight, he went down slowly
and carefully eased the weight up, only to receive red light lights on
depth. His third attempt, needing the lift to stay in the competition,
he nailed it, three white lights and through to the bench, although well
down on what he is capable of. Mark Gregory had better fortunes, hitting
a new personal best of 275kg, and edging ahead of Andy. In the bench,
his confidence knocked, Andy was only able to take away his opening lift
of 155kg. Mark, after having some problems in the warm up area, also
only took away his opener of 180kg. The deadlift proved more promising
for Andy, hitting 275kg and a competition best. Mark wasn't so fortunate
and only managed his opener of 235kg. This left Andy with 700kg
and a respectable 6th place out of a field of 11 entrants; Mark having
lost ground to Andy in the deadlift placed 7th with 690kg.
hree
white lights. For his final attempt, 290kg was loaded on the bar, using
the same approach to the second attempt, tried to sink the lift deep,
but leant over a bit too much, failing to get a clear depth, although
grinding the weight back up. Although very annoyed, he proceeded to the
bench press, which should have been his moment to shine. With a
successful warm up, he was last out with 230kg on the bar. There was
some confusion on the lift out, which left Ben with a bad set up, and he
was held for a full 5 seconds before being given the start signal.
Despite a very strong press, the lift was failed, with the referees
unhappy with the starting position and the movement of the buttocks.
Unfortunately, for the second attempt, despite correcting the starting
position, his bottom raised off the bench on lowering the bar, to
receive the red lights. With his final attempt, he pressed the weight,
only to lockout unevenly, failing the lift and unable to make a total in
the competition. This was a great disappointment, but hopefully these
technical problems can be easily corrected in training.