Three time British champion, Temi Nuga, lifted at the IPF Classic World Championships in Malta this year in a stacked 84kg class. She hit a massive squat PB at the British in March, signalling that she was over her injury and back on form and I was excited to see what she would do.
Temi's first squat at 180kg was super deep and super easy and her second at 192.5kg didn't look much different. 200kg went on the bar for a PB attempt for her third and, honestly, the bar speed barely changed. An easy PB and 5th place in squat. Temi definitely has a lot of capacity to grow her squat now and I have no doubt she will be stacking kilos onto this lift at her next competition.
Temi has also been making good progress on bench recently, having hit a 112.5kg PB at the British. 102.5kg and then 110kg proved no obstacle, even with those long, deadlift arms, so another PB attempt went on the bar for her final bench - 115kg. Temi hit it hard and hit it well, dancing off the platform, and, incidentally, moving herself up to 4th place.
Finally it was time to deadlift. Temi opened with 217.5kg and looked fired up and ready for it as she approached the platform. No dramas at all and this put her only 2.5kg behind third place. A massive 230kg went on next. She nudged the bar to where she wanted it before setting up and, although it was noticeably slower than her opener, she was clearly a real threat for the bronze medal.
Temi called for 240kg for her final lift of the day and to move up to third place. She gave herself a brief pep talk and shook out her arms at the back of the platform and went in for the pull. This was the hardest we saw her work all day and it was a tough lockout. She returned the weight to the platform and turned to face the ref's lights, dancing the waiting dance with her hands held in prayer while they made their decision. Three white lights, a massive PB and she moved up to the bronze medal position!
Unfortunately, this proved to be temporary and team-mate Ziana Azariah bumped her back down to 4th place but she picked up the deadlift bronze as well as that rarest of achievements - 9 for 9 good lifts with PBs across the board. Outstanding.
Post a Comment