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South East Powerlifting Championships 2007
Following
on from the Greater London Powerlifting Championships in October,
Faisal Ahmed Spaul entered the South East Powerlifting Championships
with qualification for the British Junior Championships in January in
his sights. After only entering his first competition a few months ago,
this was a big task and he needed to lift some big personal bests to
make the numbers. Spaul was joined by Ben Banks, entering the
competition in preparation for the Commonwealth Championships in two
weeks time, and Rebecca Yeoh, who refereed throughout the day.
Spaul was first to lift, and got off to a shaky start with an unconvincing opener of 200kg on the squat. With the depth borderline, Spaul was awarded two whites lights to get on the board. With qualification still in mind, Spaul jumped to a competition best of 220kg. Spaul couldn't afford to miss any lifts if he was to qualify, and with some considerably tighter knee wraps, came up quite slowly, again only just going deep enough to satisfy the judges earning two white lights. Sticking to the game plan, Spaul went for 240kg, this was a big personal best and based on the previous two lifts , was slightly optimistic. However, Spaul had fooled us all, and really got himself psyched up for the lift, confidently taking the weight out of the rack, he sunk it deep driving it comfortably to lock out. A massive 40kg competition best, with more left in him. One lesson was clear though, he needs to get psyched up for all his attempts, not just the last one!
Having
nailed his target squat, the biggest number he had been targeting ,
Spaul looked set to make his qualifying total. After a positive warm-up,
Spaul did a strong opener at 130kg, a competition best. Progressing onto
150kg as planned, Spaul was looking confident, but unfortunately the
weight got stuck two thirds of the way up. Unfortunately the big squat
had taken a lot ou
Spaul now needed a big deadlift to reach his qualifying total of 620kg, and he pulled his opening deadlift of 180kg with ease. Taking a big jump to 210kg, Spaul struggled to get himself psyched up, as the target total was now out of sight. In both of his final two attempts he pulled 210kg, to just above his knees, but the drive off the floor was insufficient to carry him through to lock out.
His final total of 550kg was a 70kg improvement from the Greater London Championships, but Spaul was disappointed not to hit the qualifying total. However, based on his performance, and drastic improvement since first competing, Spaul has been given a special invite to British Junior Championships. Congratulations to Spaul, a well deserved achievement!
Next up was Ben, suffering from an upset stomach from the previous night's Italian meal, he was just aiming to lift his openers and check they were suitable for the Commonwealth's Championships only two weeks away. Some bad timing in the warm-up room, left him taking a 50kg jump on his opening attempt, however, Ben still made the 280kg lift with ease to receive three white lights. Passing on his next two attempts, Ben prepared for the Bench Press. His warm-ups were not as strong as normal, and his opening attempt of 220kg, was smooth, but not as powerful as he would have liked for an opening lift. With this in mind he decided to take a second attempt at 240kg, which unfortunately got stuck in a similar position to Spaul's 150kg. Passing on his third attempt, Ben went on to his opening lift in the deadlift of 290kg, which he lifted confidently. Ben received three white lights for all of his opening lifts, even though he felt a bit worse for wear, and so this should leave him feeling confident of his openers for New Zealand. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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of him, and his third attempt went the same way as the second.