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World Powerlifting Championships
The Club was represented on the Great Britain team of seven lifters by Ben Banks as they headed off to Canada on 1st November for the World Powerlifting Championships. The competition was spread out over the whole week, with Ben lifting on Friday. In his first year as a senior lifter, Ben was selected after winning the British Powerlifting Championships back in June. Ben was selected for the 110kg class and although the original nomination list of thirty lifters had shrunk down to sixteen, he still needed to lift well to make the top ten. However this still meant that the competition would be split, with Ben lifting in the first group, and the stronger lifters going in the second group.
Next up was
the Bench Press, opening at a light 215kg, Ben pressed the weight
comfortably, passing the lift with two white lights, receiving one red
light for the bar hitting too low down his chest. With the one red light
in mind, there was a modest increase to 225kg. Pulling the weight high
on his chest, Ben pressed it comfortably to lockout for three white
lights. After a strong second attempt, the bar was loaded to 240kg to
match Ben's competition best, with a good drive off his chest, Ben
stayed with the weight as it slowed midway into the lift, before
finishing with a strong lockout. This lift left Ben in strong position
to attack for a top ten position. In the Deadlift, Ben opened with a very comfortable 300kg, before going to 315kg. Again the weight came up fast off the floor, but slowed slightly on its way to lockout. In the last round a personal best of 322.5kg was called for to leave Ben ahead of four lifters in the first group, and secure at least 12th position. With a solid pull the weight edged smoothly up his thighs for three white lights, and a personal best total of 862.5kg. Then in the second group, Orhan Bilican, the gold medallist in the squat, was unable to lockout his opening lift of 300kg, disqualifying him from the competition, and a certain medal position. This left Ben with a respectable 11th position, though just outside the top ten place he had been targetting. Across the Great Britain team, there were two medals, with Rob Palmer pressing 225kg in the 82.5kg class for Bronze, and Brian Irwin pulling 340kg in the 125+kg class for Bronze.
Ben and the rest of the team, will need to train hard to move up the ranks in the European Championships in May next year.
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After
comfortably making weight, Ben's opening lift on the squat was 280kg, a
weight he had lifted several times in competition. Ben sunk the weight
deep, and drove it up for three white lights. For his next lift he
jumped to 300kg. With a confident descent, Ben was forced to grind the
weight out of the bottom for a difficult lift, but white lights all the
same. His final attempt at 310kg proved too much, and after a brief
drive, he was left stuck at the bottom of the lift. But with two
successful lifts, he had a good start to the competition. In the next
group there was some very impressive squatting, with Orhan Bilican from
Belgium coming very close to finishing his attempt at 418.5kg, an
attempt at the World Record, but he was still left with the gold medal
for his successful second attempt of 402.5kg.
Following Ben in the second group, Oleksiy Rokochiy from Ukraine and Tor
Herman Omland from Norway tied with 277.5kg with the Ukrainian at the
lighter bodyweight.