Shock and Awe,
That is how Rebecca and I feel at the moment. 306 just had one of those weekends where records and successes just kept pouring in. Now my apologies if I miss anything on this post, but the sheer volume of the exploits this weekend are overwhelming. First lets start by looking at the recap by our powerlifting coach Marc Morris on how some of his athletes fared on Saturday:
"Greetings 306'ers,
It's my pleasure to bring you the results of all of our winter strength work:
Yesterday, 306 sent five lifters, Genevieve Grant, Jessie Buydens, Jeff Woo, Kent Brown and Coach, to participate in the Synergy Strength Open Powerlifting meet.
To start it off, meet MVP Genevieve Grant, PR'd in all three lifts, going 9 for 9 with a 97.5 kg (209 lbs) Squat, 75.5 kg (166 lbs) Bench and 142.5 kg (314 lbs) Deadlift. The bench press moved Gen onto third on the 306 board and was an unofficial National record. Due to her 313 kg total this will be a press Gen can attempt again at the 2014 CPU Nationals in St. Catherine's, Ontario.
Next up, we had reigning Canadian medalist Jessie Buydens smoking meet PR's left and right. Perhaps a sign of things to come, the warm up room actually stopped to watch Jessie's back room squat attempts. She wouldn't disappoint on the platform, crushing an impressive 150 kg (330 lbs) Squat, 97.5 kg (214 lbs) Bench and 170 kg (375 lbs) Deadlift. She narrowly missed a provincial record 188.0 kg (415 lbs) deadlift to win Best Overall lifter. Jessie will be battling for a national title this year.
In his first meet, Jeff Woo made Saskatchewan history in the 66 kg Junior Division with four provincial records (including total), a 152.5 kg (337 lbs) Squat, 84 kg (185 lbs) Bench and 152.5 kg (337 lbs) Deadlift. His performance also qualified him for Nationals.
Using this opportunity as a tune-up meet, 306 crowd favourite "shirtless" Kent Brown hit huge PR's in both the squat and bench, with 162.5 kg (357 lbs) and 130 kg (286 lbs) lifts respectively, and narrowly missed a 190 kg (418 lbs) deadlift for a huge total at sub-150 lb bodyweight. Kent will have his eyes on the national podium this April
Although battling an injury, Coach managed to PR in both the squat and bench, 197.5 kg (434 lbs) and 125 kg (276 lbs) respectively, the squat moving him up the 306 board, before missing two deadlifts for his National Qualifying Total. Next time!
I couldn't be prouder of this impressive day by all 306 athletes
Looking forward to the things to come!"
- Marc
Now the lifting didin't end there. Sunday was also test day for a lot of our athletes. Rob Lovelace hit a 315lbs bench, taking third spot on the 306 board. Jamie Turuk hit a 445lbs back squat taking me off the board. Lana hit a 315lbs squat moving to second and taking Rebecca off the board. As such our already impressive leaderboard had six total upgrades in two days. Keeping in mind that Jason Joyal and Ty also had there own personal back and forth on squats and deadlifts a week ago, January has been an incredible month of exploits.
Now remember we are a CF gym, yet we now have had records both Provincial and National in both Olympic and Power lifting!
On the CF front we had two athletes competing in Red Deer this weekend. Graham Roberston took home the bronze in the scaled division and Mike Rogers finished mid pack in his first RX'd competition. Great work representing 306 by both these men. Interestingly enough the winner of the RX'd competiton was former 306 athlete Mike Gore-Hickman who began his CF journey with us before recently moving to Edmonton.
Bring on the Cast Iron Classic!
Coach