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European Junior Powerlifting Championships
The Great Britain Junior team of six lifters flew out to Jonkoping, in
Sweden, to compete in the European Championships, with Guy Djedje from the Club's Squad sessions set to compete in
the 110kg class. Last September, Guy placed fourth in the World Juniors
in South Africa with a 762.5kg total, taking home a Silver medal on the
Bench Press with 220kg. However, the line up for this competition seemed
incredibly tight and Guy would need to lift well to come home with a
medal again.
Guy was first up on the Squat, opening with 260kg. With some nerves
setting in, Guy let the weight pull him forward, and despite driving the
weight up strong, lost his balance forward at lockout, taking a step
forward, for three red lights, and an unfortunate start to the day.
Re-taking the same weight for his second attempt, this time he got it
right, just dropping the weight low enough on the descent, and
comfortably squatting it to lockout for a good lift. For his final
attempt he raised the bar to 275kg, just 5kg short of his competition
best of 280kg. Now more confident, Guy held a good line on the descent
and finished the lift for another comfortable attempt.
Moving on to the Bench Press, Guy was looking to challenge for a medal,
but with three of his competitors opening above his competition record of
232.5kg, he was most likely going to need to a big personal best.
Opening at a modest 210kg, this was a formality, as Guy blasted the bar
to lockout for three white lights. In the second round, the bar was
raised to 230kg, but despite the big jump Guy still lowered the weight
confidently, pressing it out with ease. After the first round, with the
Lithuanian missing his big opener of 260kg, the Russian was in the lead
with 245kg. With this in mind, Guy put in 245kg for his final attempt, a
massive personal best, to challenge for Gold on bodyweight. But with the
Russian and Lithuanian successful on their second attempts, Guy was
challenging for Bronze when he stepped up to take his final attempt.
Although he had a confident
Moving into the final discipline, the deadlift, Guy was again looking to
challenge for the podium after making some good progress in his
training. Opening with 280kg, Guy struggled to get a good set-up, but
still managed to make the lift comfortably. In the second round, Guy
jumped up to 300kg to match his competition best, and challenge for the
podium. Although a slower lift, Guy still managed to get strong lockout
for white lights, and moved into Bronze medal position at the end of the
second attempts. In the final round of the Deadlift, Guy took a small
increase to 305kg, to try and consolidate his position on the podium,
but with six other lifters also taking podium attempts, coming away with
a medal would be very tight. Again struggling with his set-up, Guy came
of the floor slowly, and was unable to get enough speed to carry the The Great Britain team as a whole, travelled back with five Bronze medals, an excellent performance considering the extremely high standard across the whole competition, where a number of impressive records fell.
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descent,
and a strong initial drive off his chest, the weight proved too much,
and he got stuck halfway. With the Lithuanian going on to break the
World Junior record with a final lift of 276kg, this really was a tough
class.
bar through the middle part of the lift. Still sitting in Bronze medal
position at this point, he was forced to sit and watch as four more
competitors threatened to take away his medal. But with all four
unsuccessful, Guy walked away with the Bronze medal in the Deadlift.
Finishing up with a personal best total of 805kg, his first 800kg+total,
and the best total on the GB Team, he placed 8th overall in a very tough
class.