Originally published on IPF social media on 18th June 2023
Coming into Classic Worlds, 2019 world champion, Tony Cliffe, was nominated 40kg ahead of fellow Brit, Inderraj Singh Dhillon and looked to be in for an easy ride. However, things did not pan out that way on the day.
Tony paced well on squat. hitting 345kg for the silver medal behind the incoming world champion, Algeria's Mohamed Sahad. Sahad missing his opener on depth but ultimately smoked 375kg for the squat gold and a chunky lead. Spain's Victor Vazquez had a good day on squats, taking the bronze medal with 340kg.
Cliffe is a big bencher and he took a bite out of the Algerian's lead with 242.5kg for the gold. Special mention to Taras Melnychuk of Ukraine and Bereczki-Kiraly Szilard of Hungary who won the silver and bronze bench medals from the B group.
Into deadlift and Cliffe opened 10kg heavier than Sahad and slid into a small and fragile lead. Sahad missed his second attempt and it started to look like his world title run was at an end. Meanwhile, Dhillon took 375kg for his second deadlift and it moved fast! This pushed him up to 4th and we had no doubt at all that a world record attempt was on its way.
Sahad missed again in the final round and Cliffe was confirmed as world champion with a lifetime best deadlift of 365kg but there was still action to come. Dhillon loaded 386kg to break the deadlift world record set by Bryce Krawczyk in Halmstad in 2021. He looked fierce and determined as he approached the platform. He spread his arms wide and took a deep breath, bent to the bar and started to pull. It slowed and wobbled at the knee and the bar sloped away to the left briefly but, with a Herculean effort, he gsecured the lockout, the world record and, incidentally, overall third. A great result for Team GB.
Tony Cliffe GBR 952.5kg
Mohamed Sahad ALG 925kg
Inderraj Singh Dhillon GBR 906kg
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