Originally published on King of the Lifts
47kg class
The open classes are underway at the European Classic in Poland. Tiffany Chapon of France started
to pull away from the pack immediately with a great looking 140kg opening squat. She is the open
world champion and holds the open world records in squat and total. She had the bench record too
until it was taken by junior lifter Nataliia Cheremenko a couple of days ago. 150kg on her second
was slower than expected though, probably due to a recent back issue, and this ended up being her
best squat. Still, it was easily enough for the squat gold.
Stephanie Légard (FRA) took the M1 world record with her third squat at 125kg – this got her the
squat bronze behind Ana Lores Fernandez of Spain who took the silver with 140kg.
Turbo Tiff opened her bench with a strong 90kg, then took 95kg for her second, putting even more
distance between her and the rest of the field. Légard snagged the bench bronze to match her squat
medal and to maintain overall third with 200kg at sub-total, only 2.5kg behind Fernandez.
Chapon opened her deadlift at 162.5kg, giving her a 407.5kg total and pretty much guaranteeing the
title. Further back, Légard moved into second place with her opening pull – 147.5kg to Fernandez’s
132.5 and then extended her own M1 world record total with her second and third pulls, taking the
overall silver with 355kg
Chapon asked for 171kg for her second pull – a European record – but it only went to her knees and
she did not struggle with it – she just put it down, possibly a sign that her injury had flared up. She
tried again on her third but it just wasn’t there. Nevertheless, she walked away the open European
Champion and set the benchmark for the best lifter contest with 113.08 GL points.
52kg class
In the 52kg class, we had echoes of Sun City where the squat world record changed hands 5 times,
ending up with Pleun Dekkers of the Netherlands on 168.5kg. This time around, Dekkers and current
world champion, Noémie Allabert (FRA), both opened their squat with 160kg, giving notice that the
record was in imminent danger. Allabert took a conservative approach, going for 165kg on her
second, thinking about the long game maybe rather than individual lift records. Dekkers extended
the record to 169kg on her second but it looked right on the edge of strength. Allabert continued to
run her own race, settling for the squat silver with a comfortable 167.5kg. Last squat went to
Dekkers and she defied gravity, pushing her record up to 171kg for the squat gold.
Serbia’s Aleksandra Aranitovic, who we haven’t seen since Helsingborg in 2019, took the bench silver
with 97.5kg behind France’s bench specialist Alison Huet, who got the gold with the same weight.
This put Aranitovic in third place at sub-total. Allabert and Dekkers continued to trade blows on
bench, both getting all three and going into deadlifts with Dekkers a bare 6kg ahead.
The competition swung around after the first round of deadlifts though and Allabert shot into the
lead with an easy looking opener of 180kg. It moved incredibly quickly and made a clear statement
of her intentions.
Dekkers missed her second pull of 170kg – it just seemed too heavy - and this was a key moment in
the competition as Allabert absolutely SMOKED 185kg for her second. She didn’t come out again
but still took the deadlift gold, the total world record, and the title of European Champion.
After the first session of the opens, France are two for two. Can anyone stop them?
Post a Comment