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Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships 2007
After
a strong performance of his openers, totalling 790kg at the South East
Powerlifting Championships
The feeling of discomfort at the South East, turned out to be a rather severe case of food poisoning, which stripped Ben of bodyweight and hydration. However, Ben still felt he could be competitive with a good few days recovery. But shortly, before leaving for the competition, it emerged that the age groups had been separated, so instead of all the 110kg lifters competing on Sunday, Ben would be lifting on his own, unopposed on Friday. This was a disaster for Ben, to travel all that way and not have a real competition and also as it meant he would only have a couple of days to recover from the ~35 hour trip to New Zealand, and only a few days to recover from food poisoning.
Although, initially there were no objections to Ben moving to the Open Class from the Commonwealth Powerlifting Federation Committee, the move was blocked by the organiser, which is his prerogative. However, there was one ray of light, although Ben had travelled half way round the world he still had a couple of supporters from the Club!
On the day of the competition, it was clear Ben was still going to weigh in very light, after eating a full meal and consuming some sports drinks, it was a big knock to Ben's confidence that he was still 5kg within the weight class. However, as he was unopposed Ben only needed to make a total to win, and dropped his opening lifts considerably.
His warm-up for the squat went reasonably well, the main problem was that the supportive equipment was now visibly baggy, making it difficult for Ben to judge depth, sinking some of his warm ups very deep, and cutting others. His first attempt, at 260kg, despite looking very strong, was deemed too high, and received three red lights. For his second attempt, Ben sunk the lift and muscled the weight up for three white lights, at least getting him on the board. However, with the dehydration already kicking in, Ben passed on his third attempt.
After the
squat, Ben decided to drop his opening lift for the Bench press further
to 180kg. However, with a strong warm up, this proved to be a bit
Finally on the deadlift, with the dehydration really taking affect, Ben was suffering from severe cramping in his hands, affecting his grip on the bar. However, Ben still managed to lift his opener of 270kg very comfortably, and decided to take a big jump to 316kg, to attempt the Commonwealth Senior record in the deadlift, and break his own Commonwealth Junior record. In his second attempt, as he was about to start the lift, the Chief Referee, stopped him, to recheck the weights. Having already gripped this bar, this triggered off the cramp in his hands once again, leading to a pull that finished at his knees. Taking the same weight again, Ben had run out of steam, and the weight got stuck on his thigh.
Ben finished with a disappointing total of 740kg, this didn't reflect the weights Ben was capable of. In hindsight, he probably still could have made all of his openers, and it was a shame that he was unable to take advantage of the extra two days rest. On the Sunday, the open class was won with 832.5kg, whether or not Ben could have put any challenge on that number on the day, no one will know, but he certainly would have been in the medals. One final knock for Ben, was the awarding of Best Lifter trophies for each age group, unfortunately this had not been publicised, and a New Zealand lifter, mindful of the award, had edged Ben out on points with his third deadlift; had Ben have taken a 280kg lift, he would have won comfortably.
It was a very unfortunate competition for Ben, made even worse because it was on the other side of the world. However, despite the difficulties he did enough to get the medals, so he deserves credit for that. But hopefully this should mean that he has used up all of his bad luck, and he will be due some more respectable numbers in 2008!
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just
over a week ago, Ben felt confident going into the build-up for his last
competition as a junior lifter. However, luck was definitely not on his
side!
overly cautious, and for his second attempt he jumped to 210kg. Again
this was a comfortable lift, and it seemed that his original opening
lift of 220kg, would have still been viable. For his third attempt, Ben
raised the bar to 241kg, to try and break the Commonwealth Senior
record. With a strong lift out, Ben waited for the signal, and continued
to wait, unfortunately it was left to a spotter to rely the start
signal, which had been covered by the support from the crowd. After the
long wait, Ben lowered the bar, only to press it half-way.