The British Classic Men's Team just keeps getting better. We had one European Champion from each event since its inception in 2015. Tony Cliffe (who else) won in the first year and then Owen Hubbard picked up two in a row. Kieran Gray then picked up the mantle and had back to back wins. He wasn't alone last year though - Jurins Kengamu joined the ranks of European Champions along with him.
We are sending a strong team this year - let's take a look at the lighter weight classes:
In the 59s, Ishtyaq Nabi is nominated in second place with the 565kg he did out in Malta at Classic Worlds. France's Antoine Garcia is 22.5kg ahead on nominations. However, Ishtyaq has pulled nearly 20kg more in training than he did in Malta - could Derek Ng's deadlift world record, currently 275kg, be in danger? We'd love to see it.
Lightweight only in terms of his weight class, Dylan Nelson is nominated in joint 4th place with the 724kg total he did at the Manchester Open in August. He lost his European squat record to Denis Fastelli in Malta last year but he has twice done more in competition on home turf this year and is close to the world once again. Donations of anti-emetics gratefully received, special request from the centre referee.
In the 83kg class, Jurins Kengamu is the incoming European champion, looking for redemption after not manifesting his full potential in Malta. Training has been going really well but he faces off against not only deadlift specialist, Enahoro Asein, but also fast improving Edoardo Mazzucchielli. His nomination here is the 790kg he did in Malta but he is capable of so much more, having hit 820.5kg at the British in March. We’d love to see him be the third Brit to pick up back to back wins.
Christian Ayandokun is nominated in 1st place with 822.5kg from Malta. He took the silver medal last year behind Sascha Stendebach but this year Christian is nominated out in front. Richmond Baiden is out of the juniors and bringing a strong challenge though. Will Christian have to finally go up to RPE 8.5 to beat him? We’re all waiting to see it.
The competition begins on 4th December and will be streamed on the EPF YouTube channel.
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