Progressive Strongest Novice Competition 5th & 6th Nov 2016

By Ali Wilson

Progressive Strongest Novice Competition 2016!

Well… That was a bit different! ‘Ghetto As F***’ would be a good subtitle for this competition! But just because it was ghetto (compared to our normal competitions) doesn’t mean it was less of a standard!

Being caught in-between units for the gym move thanks to lawyers being on holiday in half term has caused some stress (massive understatement!), and trying to get things sorted in time for this competition has been so frustrating! But you know what? I move forward, NO MATTER WHAT.

So the competition was outside, in the car park round the back (Thanks to Chris Smith of Quinton Major for the permission!), and I ordered some portaloos for that ultimate in ghetto festival feeling. Now we’re just gambling with the weather! There was threats of rain in the clouds, and it was cold! But it didn’t rain on the first day, and we managed to win a very exciting race by seconds with the rain on the second day! And in doing so I think I had to have pulled off my fastest smoothest competition to date haha! So cheers Rain for the push!

Another element to the limbo caused by no gym was having no equipment! That included the computer with all the score sheet templates on so I had to hand draw all templates (in pink ink, thanks to Ellia for lending me the pen!), weight plates, quite a bit of the specialist kit we use… Blimey! Luckily I have some good people around and was able to borrow some stuff, including a bunch of ‘Ghetto As F***’ rusty plates!

So all of these elements mean it was cobbled together, but I tell you, I had a great time! And judging from the awesome efforts put forth by the competitors, so did they! Both days were awesome, the competitions went nice and smooth, everybody was proper on it, good times!

There was one other element to the potential chaos of the weekend… And that was a former prominent PTS member actually trying to sabotage the event, as well as try and land me in potential legal and financial trouble by ‘grassing me up’ to what she thought were relevant parties…. Luckily A) They didn’t give a damn, and were more interested in warning me that someone was maliciously trying to harm my business, and B) They weren’t relevant parties. So I have to say, what goes through someone’s mind to do something like this, and to also brag about it to other PTS members? Trying to get a competition stopped impacts on the competitors who travel as far as places like Wales for today’s competition (and possibly further) as well as the competitors she knows as ‘friends’ (all while being an athlete and coach herself), trying to damage the reputation of the business puts in jeopardy a special place that the PTS members love and have a very important part of their lives, and trying to destroy my life’s work also risks my livelihood and the ability to raise my daughter. So yeah, nice work. I’m guessing Santa is bringing you a turd in a sock for Christmas?

So as you can see, I’ve had a fair bit to contend with over this competition, but I don’t want to end this write up on a negative, so a massive thank you to the people that have helped this weekend, Nina Cambatta, P-j Gentle, Bill Pittuck, Claire Haynes, Justin Green, Emma Markham, Martin Murray, Faye Jordan, Beverley De Valmency, sorry if I’ve missed anyone!

Well done to all the athletes over the weekend, you should be proud of your efforts!

On to bigger and better things!

*PROGRESSIVE STRONGEST NOVICE 2016 RESULTS*

U63kg Women:
1st: Catherine Rolfe 47 points
2nd: Danielle Ward 43 points
3rd: Anna Donovan 42.5 points
4th: Isabella Williams 30.5 points
5th: Louise Clark 29 points
6th: Maya Letkova 24 points
Joint 7th: Kirsty Hern 19 points
Joint 7th: Sarah Sorkin 19 points
9th: Zoe Challiner 12 points
10th: Elaine Turton 4 points

U80kg Men:
1st: Matthew Simpson 17 points
2nd: Simon Smeathers 14 points
3rd: Nigel Seymour 10 points
4th: Neil Jones 9 points