21/6/08

WDFPF EUROPEAN UNEQUIPPED CHAMPIONSHIPS (Castle Blaynay, Ireland)

*Goals for the comp; place in top 3, total 640.

Had a long day on the friday flying over to dublin, getting to my bnb and finally spending most of the day looking at the wall of my room whilst not eating and drinking! Same old! Sat morining I weighed in at 88.8kg. About a kg lighter than at the British but no bother. Then comes the worst part of the day, waiting around till my flights (5 of 7) lift of at 1pm. When the opners were posted I new that it was mine to win as no Mark Lowe. A shame but 3rd place at the Brits, Vince Minty, was there and I new if he had a good day (and he did!) I'd have to do more than just get my opners in!

Squats;

1st- 212.5kg / 468.4lbs miss (depth)
2nd- 215kg / 474lbs good lift
3rd- 225kg / 496lbs good lift

Well it wasn't the start to the day I was looking for. Felt great warming up but just let my concentration lapse on my opener. Just not quite tight enough and not quite in the groove, which resulted in me coming up a shade too early. I wasn't undulay worried, but had to think fast on my feet. I new I didn't have to push this lift to win or even get my goal total so decided to be conservative. Plus I was still unsure whther I was really squating badly or just had an off lift. So quick plan was 215kg deep and finish with 225kg. And that's what happened (I only got one more red light all day). 215kg deep enough to get the refs of me back, then I finally remembered how to squat and did 225kg with ease. In all honesty it felt like I left 10kg on the platform but was happy with the way I came back from a poor start and felt it was good 'competetive' lifting.


Bench press;

1st- 135kg / 297.6lbs good lift (one red)
2nd- 142.5kg / 313.2lbs good lift
3rd- 145kg / 320lbs (new comp pb!)

As there was only one decent bench the warm up was a bit more perfunctuary then normal but no probs. 135kg went up easy but no fireworks. I did however get one red light and when asked the judge told me that the bar was too low on my chest/body. Now this is my 11th comp including bench only comps and several national comps and this has never been a problem. Anyway stuck to the planned lift of 142.5kg but put it down higher than normal just to make him happy. Went up okay. Then took 145 and didn't alter my tech. It flew up and surprise surprise no red from the ref! Again could have done more but I hadn't had a bench comp pb in a year so felt I just needed that. It felt good. Just needed my opner in the deadlift to sow up 1st place.


Deadlift;

1st- 252.5kg / 557 good lift
2nd- 262.5kg / 579lbs good lift (comp pb)
3rd- 272.5kg / 600lbs good lift (new comp pb, what's all the fuss about!)

TOTAL; 642.5kg / 1416.5lbs
Wilks; 388 pts

Was feeling very good wraming up for the deadlifts. However the organisors did their best to unsettle evreyone by making the flight wait 20+minutes after they had warmed up to start!! 1st lift was okay, Easy but snatched at it a little and didn't get my hips through quick enough still that was me in 1st place. 262.5 was smart and easy. I new 600lbs was in the bag. 272.5kg was the best of the bunch, catching it sweet, new I had it from the get go and even had time to showboat! Good days, very good days.

So all in all it was a great comp, well run most of the time and good atmosphere through most of the day. Ver happy with the win and total but would have liked it better if the British champ was there. I def left weight on the platfrom and have never felt so strong! Came in at 388 wilks points and 4th place out of the men. Phil B (100's) and Stuart F (67.5) took 1st and 2nd with 400 points plus (both English), whilst an Irish 82.5kg Irish lifter took 3rd overall.

I am now seriously thinking about the Worlds!!

Cheers for all the kind words and support here!! /quote]