GBPF Anglian Open Powerlifting Championships Report and Video

By Ali Wilson

Today (Sunday 10th April 2016) was the GBPF Anglian Powerlifting Championships in Colchester! Yes that’s right, I did another of my stupid competing ‘doubles’… What else am I supposed to do over a weekend?

Anyway, first things first, I had a wicked time! Went down with PTS folk P-j Gentle, Justin Green and Mark Davies competing, plus Emma Markhamwas there for media recording support! I must admit I woke up this morning feeling pretty fucked (at 5am of course! Fucking early weigh-ins and long journeys, etc!), the race yesterday took a fair chunk out of me, which wasn’t the plan! But fuck it, right?

So the results were:

Pj Gentle got a 90kg squat, a 45kg bench press and a 125kg deadlift for a 260kg total and 3rd place in the 63kg class!

I got a 145kg squat, a 110kg bench press and a 205kg deadlift for a 460kg total and 7th place in the 83kg class!

I had that nightmare weigh-in scenario three weeks ago, and I wasn’t keen to repeat that! I jumped on the scales before 8am and was 81.8kg, awesome! So I had breakfast! Then when I weighed-in at 12pm I was down to 81.2kg! I must admit I looked great!

Now originally I thought the Reaper race was going to be a fun fast doddle, and I had planned on getting PBs across the board at today’s competition, with lofty (for me) goals of a 160kg squat, a 120kg bench press and a 220kg deadlift, for a 500kg total. But when you feel like you can barely bend over and touch the floor, plans have to shift…

So I figured on my squat to open a little lower on 130kg to save energy, then go 145kg for a second, then maybe 160kg… Well I got the first two lifts, actually 145kg felt great, but I still felt fucked so I decided to go for a little PB in 152.5kg. I felt super confident going in, perhaps too excited as I lost upper back tightness coming back up and it turned into a slow grind death fight, which was moving up in the tiniest of fractions so I thought I had it, but then I ran out of juice… Once the spotters saved me and replaced the bar I felt like I had to push my eyeballs back in haha! Never mind! Should have got that!

I thought the bench press would be the least affected… Oh dear. I opened on 100kg, easy enough. 110kg was next, again should have been easy as I wanted 120kg, but my legs didn’t set up right as they were so tight, and I committed the crime of bum lift, so no lift. I just went for 110kg again, made sure I got the set up right, and nearly failed it, just because! Went horrific with zig zag line and uneven pressing, fucking horrible lift but managed to get it, some how! What a nightmare!

Funnily enough deadlifts in warm ups felt great actually, I opened on 180kg and it felt suitably easy. I then went for 200kg, it felt slow and grindy abut was a sure thing, but I really didn’t know what I had left. I plumped for just 205kg, in the lift itself this felt again horrific, slow and a fight to the death to get it locked out, but watching the video back it didn’t look like that at all! But whatever, I got a lift!

So a 460kg total, way off what I wanted as per usual, but considering how I felt was actually quite pleased! I came 7th out of 8 lifters in the 83kg class, love the crowd of lifters we have at these competitions!

The rest of the PTS crew did me proud with their efforts as usual, love going and competing with this lot!

A really great day, well organised, smooth and fast and exciting!

Love a bit of powerlifting!

Oh and here’s the video of everyone’s lifts! Enjoy!