So after a great week in St. John's team 306 came back with 4 medals, lots of PR's and tons of great memories.
Lifting started off on Tuesday with Jessie and Lana. Judging was tough on the national stage, but the girls adjusted their squats accordingly and continued to fight.
Lana hit some good PR's and showed a new level of focus and mental strength. It's going to be exciting to watch what Lana can accomplish in this upcoming year.
Jessie's number one goal coming into the competition was too win gold and defend her national championship. Jessie accomplished this and finished first and is now looking forward to her first international competition, North American's in July.
Next up was Brandee on Wednesday. Brandee hit PR's on everything but bench, but came very close to hitting her 3rd bench which would have been a 7.5 kg PR and finished with a silver medal. This is exceptional considering Brandee was competing with a cracked rip. Throughout the week all anyone could talk about was how Brandee had exceptional technique on all her lifts.
Thursday the guys started to lift. We had Paul, Kent, Marc and Jay. Paul started off the morning with a bang going 9 for 9 and barely breaking a sweat while setting all four national records and unofficially hitting a squat and total WORLD record for his age and weight class. Paul will be looking to officially break these records and potentially more come North American's in July.
Kent and Marc were up next. Marc fought to make weight, but made it with about a minute to spare. Marc adjusted his game plan accordingly and finished with a strong 4th place in a very competitive category. Marc PR'd his competition deadlift, total and wilks and increased his provincial deadlift record to 242.5 kg in the process.
Kent had a good day and successfully hit is goal of second place and securing and trip to North American's in July. Kent hit an easy personal best deadlift of 200 kg and increased his total and wilks score to remain number 1 in wilks at the gym.
Jay was up on Thursday afternoon in a very competitive 83 kg class. Jay missed a few third attempts and did not have his best meet, but took away many learning experiences from competing at his first Powerlifting nationals.
Up last was big Luke on Friday. Luke was up against some big boys, but in the end proved that he could hang with the best of them. On Luke's last deadlift we increased the weight by 10 kg's after his competitor in front of him missed, which was a 20 kg increase from his second to help him secure 5th place. This was very exciting has it was a personal best of 290 kg. When Luke finished his lift he was excited has he thought he lifted 280 kg, but his reaction when he saw it was actually a lot more was priceless.
All in all team 306 improved from last year and can only improve from here.
Next up for a few of our lifters is North American's in July, which are in Moose Jaw. So mark your calendars and make sure you come out and cheer for everyone.