A small but hardy bunch will be heading out to South Africa soon to represent GB in amongst the palm trees, lively wildlife and beautiful environs of Sun City.
In the open category, Hugo Duarte is no stranger to equipped lifting and has been away with the British equipped team before. This will be his first bench international and he is in a tough class in the 93s with Gansukh Batsukh (MGL) and Rafał Zalewski (POL) both benching around 300kg.
Northern Ireland's favourite Michael Gibson is an old hand at the equipped bench malarkey. His nomination is the 280.5kg he did last year which has him in 5th place. Equipped benching is an unpredictable game though and the guy nominated in first has bombed out of the last two World Championships. Mike could really make up some ground here if he puts in a great performance.
Joe Shaw joins Mike in the 105kg class. While this will be his first international, he's been pushing his numbers up like crazy recently - long may that continue.
Dan McGauley will be competing in the Special Olympics. He's the veteran of a fair few international trips and we look forward to him bringing home some more bling.
On the women's side, Amila Dissanayake (52kg) and Romina Basting (63kg) are both at their first World Championships and both look to be in with a shout for a medal. Rachel Steedman has more international experience, but she has a mountain to climb in the 76kg class to reach the podium.
Ella Brincat-Smith is our only sub-junior - she's unopposed so just needs to hold her nerve and get one in. Similarly, Angus Gardner in the juniors should be set for a silver.
In the masters, Maureen Gordon is looking for her third back to back win. She's nominated a long way in front in the M2 69s so fingers crossed for her. Newcomer to equipped benching, Joanne Laird is also nominated in first place. She's in the M2 supers so I have some particular interest here - bring it home Jo! With Judith McGauley unopposed in the M4 52s, our ladies' masters team look set to succeed.
Scott Simon has branched out into equipment - this is his first equipped international and he is unopposed in the M1 120kg class. No risky moves, Scott! Bring it home! Stuart Peskett is another newcomer to equipment. He's looking at a fairly tough class in the M2 83s. Darren Ball is in the same boat but nominated in second place in the M2 supers. It would be great to see him take another medal to add to last year's silver at Euro Bench.
You never know what's going to happen with equipped bench so nominations don't always mean a lot. The team are in safe hands though with Head Coach, Martin Marshall so get out there and bench for Britain! We will be watching.
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