The British Equipped team have recently returned from Thisted, Denmark where they competed against Europe's best at the European Equipped Powerlifting Championships. You can read about how the women's team got on here but let's see how the men did.
Bernie McGurk was first man out, lifting in the 74kg class. Bernie is actually the M2 world champion but there's fire in the old dog yet and he held his own in the open class. He plugged away under the radar on squat and bench, ranking in last place going into deadlift. However, deadlifters are used to this. They stack up what they can at sub-total and then hit you with a massive opener. 267.5kg was enough to get him the deadlift silver and a place on the podium.
James Taylor lifted in a fierce 83kg class as his international full power debut. He didn't have the best day, struggling to hit the depth required by the referees until finally getting white lights for his third squat at 250kg. Bench was just as fraught. He had a technical fail at 180kg and then got his elbows out of position on the descent of 182.5kg which sent it west on the press. James understandably looked under pressure as he came out for 185kg for his final attempt. Relief! A great bench press and three white lights kept him in the competition. His total was a fair bit down on his best but days like these are what make equipped lifting so character building.
We had two in the 93s - Hugo Duarte and Mat Hallett. After recent struggles, Hugo had a great day on squat, getting all three in and looking incredibly strong with 350kg, 15kg more than he had ever done on the platform before. Mat struggled a little, only getting his 275kg opener. Both came to grief on the bench though, neither managing to put in a successful attempt. Mat bowed out at this point but Hugo ploughed on, and matched his best ever pull at 305kg. Heart-breaking result for both but equipped bench is a fickle mistress and will kick every equipped lifter in the nads at some point in their career. This is part of what makes equipped lifting so hard and a pursuit for the very few.
Two again in the 105kg class. Jack Johnson got all his squats in, finishing on 325kg. He added a 250kg bench to that, a personal best in this weight class. Deadlifts just weren't happening though. 315kg sprang out of his grip at the top of his second pull, leaving him with a 875kg total and 7th place.
Matt Watson also lifted in the 105s. He had a steady day, squatting very close to his best with 312.5kg and hitting a huge bench PB with 217.5kg. The only lift he missed was his final deadlift but it still amounted to a 5kg total PB for him on the international platform.
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Last to lift was Jordan Bollard in the 120+kg class. His 405kg squat opener looked a little awkward but it got him a 5kg PB right off the bat. He went up to 412.5kg for his second and it looked tough. He stood it up but the referees turned it down on depth and he did not emerge for his third. No one else came close to this weight and Jordan took the squat gold and the lead in the competition. On bench, he hit three good lifts, taking the silver medal and a 12.5kg PB with 282.5kg. This wasn't enough to prevent the big German, Christoph Seefeld, from sailing into the lead with a huge 312.5kg press. Jordan was well clear of the lifter behind though and took the overall silver medal with 962.5kg, his first podium at this level.
Congrats and commiserations guys! Continue to strive valiantly and dare greatly, and return to the arena once more to do what others won't in pursuit of goals they will never understand.
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