Simon Voakes lifted in the 66kg class and didn't have the best day on squats, struggling for depth, but made up some ground on bench, smashing a new PB of 117.5kg and scooping the bronze medal. His opening deadlift looked easy and moved him up to fourth place overall. 205kg for his second didn't look much different. He made a valiant attempt for the deadlift bronze but his grip failed him at the top. Still, fourth place in your first international is a great day's work.
David White missed out on a podium at World Masters in Canada last year and he looked determined to improve on that from the off. Lifting in the 74kg class, he stormed through squats, matching his British record with 242.5kg and snagging the squat gold. He was a little way behind on bench through which cost him a place when the Finn, Haapamaki, flew past. His deadlift opener gave him some clearance though and he rounded off a perfect nine for nine performance with 252.5kg for the deadlift silver as well as overall second place.
Mark Fulton had a mountain to climb in the 83kg class - the standard of lifting was incredible. He was a little down on his best squat with 220kg but matched his competition best bench with 145kg. On deadlift, he initially had a tough looking 262.5kg pull turned down for soft lockout but he came out for it again and nailed it, moving himself up to 6th as a result.
The 93s was a packed class and incredibly competitive, up and down the field. We had two lifters in this class, Michele Tegon had a great day. He made nine good lifts and exceeded or matched his competition best in each lift - a good performance in anyone's book. Thomas Celestine kept his powder dry, waiting for his time to shine and the second the bar hit the floor, he was in ascendance. He had the heaviest opener at 275kg and he pushed that all the way up to an easy looking 302.5kg for the deadlift gold.
Simon Scott was in the thick of the action in the 120kg class and he looked strong on squat, making a PB of 280kg look pretty comfortable. Simon unleashed his super power on bench, taking another easy personal best with 205kg, and the bench press gold medal along with it. Only 5kg behind third place at sub-total, everything changed with the first round of deadlifts. Simon opened with 270kg and slipped back to fifth place when the big deadlifting Croatian, Novakovic, catapulted ahead. Novakovic missed his second though and Simon moved ahead on bodyweight with a solid looking 290kg pull. With every kilo crucial to placing, He attempted a heroic 305kg to get onto the overall podium. His face showed the effort but he got it all the way for a 10kg platform PB. Unfortunately for Simon, Novakovic made his final deadlift, snatching away that podium place and leaving him in 4th.
Scotland's own Paul Walker lifted in the super heavyweight class. Paul's opening squat was slow and looked painful, reflecting a minor but poorly timed injury he brought into the competition. He went up to 270kg for his second and it moved better! Unfortunately, he hit the rack with his 3rd of 275kg and it threw him offline so he had to settle for the squat bronze. Bench was strong! He got all three in, missing out on the bench bronze on bodyweight only. However, going into deadlifts, Paul had slipped back to 3rd place behind the big benching Finn, Matilainen. He soon pulled it back on deadlifts though and gave himself room to breathe with 270kg and then 287.5, netting the deadlift silver medal and overall second place.
With two silver medallist, the M1 men's team won the 3rd place team trophy and brought a host of other medals with them too. Great work, rounding off what has been a brilliant performance from the UK's classic masters.
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