HOME NATIONS POWERLIFTING CHALLENGE

ENGLAND v WALES 24/10/10 AT CHELTENHAM  

 

This competition was run in lieu of the Four Nations, originally scheduled to be held in Northern Ireland.  At the British Seniors it was agreed that it was important to keep the competition going and hence it was arranged that it would be held in Cheltenham.  Scotland had indicated that they would be sending a team, but late in the day they decided it was not possible.  We finished up with two six man teams plus and English Women’s team of three.

Whilst numbers were small the standard of lifting was very good with at least eight British records broken and a number of close attempts.  Best lifter by a surprisingly small margin was Phil Richard with new British squat mark of 307.5kg at 75kg.  He was very close with 207.5kg on the bench, but on his second deadlift disaster struck.  Phil had almost completed the lift when he lost his grip and made a hasty exit from the platform.  He had sustained a bicep injury and went straight to A & E.  In fact he had detached the lower bicep tendon in his left arm.  He has undergone surgery and we will have to wait for the prognosis, but whatever it is it’s likely to be a long time before we see Phil back on the platform.   Close behind Phil on Wilks points was England’s Tony Cliffe, who managed eight good lifts, only missing his third bench of 250kg.

British Junior record breakers were Sharn Rowlands (squat, deadlift and total) and Owen Hubbard (squat and total).  Whilst at Sub-Junior Sunil Chahal set new figures at squat, bench and total.  Mathew Pearce had considerable difficulty with his balance on squats and failed to get one in, but continued on bench and deadlift to score team points for Wales.  Nevertheless, Wales still managed to win and congratulations to Phil and his team.

There was a good turn of officials and spectators, including Denis Unitt, with seven Cat 1 referees in attendance. It was also very nice to have along Commonwealth Powerlifting President Peter Fiore on a flying visit to the UK, who kindly presented the awards.  I would like to thanks everyone who helped, particularly Fred Sterry for doing all the paperwork and certificates, Kevin Jane for the English T-Shirts, Paul Rees for bringing up the SW Eleiko combo rack, Mark Rattenberry for the use of his referee’s lights, Roy Day for taking the photos, all the loaders and my wife Carol for providing the refreshments.  Lastly none of this would have been possible without the teams, so my sincere thanks to Phil and Fred for organising the Welsh and English teams respectively.

 

Complied by Richard Parker