2014 BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS
FOR POWERLIFTING, BENCH-PRESS & DEAD LIFT
The 2014 championships have set the bench-mark for the world! Lifters rose to the
occasion by smashing over 123 records. This was the slickest most professionally
organised powerlifting championships ever. The event was hosted by Unique Fitness
who’s Principal Steve Knight and Rob Todd who trains at Unique were the Meet
Directors. Rob Todd’s presence and entertainment skills provided the gloss for these
championships.
Brenden Blake, Platform Manager and their most excellent crew Andy Milford, Lloyd
Cook, Graham Morton, Adam Cook and Dan Malinowski re-assured all lifters
confidence with their professional application and brought out the best out in the
lifters with no mishaps. Weight and Clock Officer Ruth Drury. Scoreboard Olivia
Sanders and Lee Hough and MC Allison Hough and David Carter’s impeccable team
administration at the table ensured the championships ran without a hitch. We
witnessed first class adjudication from the Referees ensuring these championships
were second to none. We are grateful to all the highly skilled referees and thank you
all. We also have a new referee. Robert Campbell Technical Officer reports that
Dominic Avo passed his International Referees exam with 90%. Well done Dominic.
With 122 lifters from all over Great Britain shaping up for selection for the 2014
European and World Championship high caliber of lifting was to be expected and we
were not disappointed. Sadly however, some lifters had caught late injuries or had
travel issues and were unable to compete.
Allison Hough WM45+, broke a World Squat record with a 140.5 kg. .
New women to the sport, Danielle Folland as a junior lifter broke World records on
all her lifts and total, as did Charlotte Wareing in the WM50+ class. Audra Corbett
broke European records on all her lifts.
Samantha Wills was exceptionally strong and with great form took the British title
and won the coveted title of Best Women’s Powerlifter with 441 points.
A raft of new teenager and junior lifters took titles; William Rayner, Shane Drury,
Luke Smith, Charlie Cox, Dominic Hill, Duncan Nowicki. Alex Punchard the new
100 kg junior champion took the title from Matthew Harding by 2.5 kg; and Alex
lifted the Best Overall Junior Powerlifter title with 440 points just beating Matthew
because. They all had a great contest.
Seasoned Master lifters, Mike King 75 kg class M45+ won his class and took a World
record squat with 240.5 kg. Desmond Drury M40+, Craig Gallis M40+, Dean Drury
M50+, achieved a European record squat 300 kg. John Burrows M40+, Russell Bain
M45+ achieved 9-4-9 to become the new Champion by out lifting Paul Murphy.
Dominic Avo M75+ broke records on all lifts. Master Champions are David Birch
M40+, Don Coates M50+, David Mills M40+, Tony Rook M55+, Ken Williams
M60+, Darren McCarroll M45+ took a World record squat with 342.5kg, Stuart
Murray M50+, Les Willis M40+. David Carter M65+ broke World records on all lifts
and he won the best overall Master lifter award with 593 points.
Benson Njenga 67.5 kg Open champion lifted three and half times his bodyweight on
the squat and dead lift to win his class. An amazing achievement!
Probably the most exciting classes were the big lifter entries in the Open class lifting
with lifters battling for the 82.5 kg, 90 kg, 100 kg, 110 kg and 140 kg. Eventual
respective Champions were: Ben Farmer, Andrew Beeston, Wes Fish, Daniel
Brighton, and Jim Gilbert. Andrew Beeston won the Best Overall Open Powerlifter
title with 526 points lifting the Best Squat Nick Luffman Memorial Shield with 214
points with a squat of 336 kg and the Brian Smith Memorial Shield for the best of the
best British lifters.
On the Single lift bench press: Josie Thomas broke the British record with 80kg,
Andrea Beers broke the British record with 80kg and Graham Dowers broke the
Master British record with 133kg. Gerrard Hart broke the Junior British record with
225 kg. His uncle Patrick Hart won his class and broke a British record with 195 kg.
Harry Whale broke the British record M55+ with 195kg. Kevin Maher at 110 kg,
broke the World record M50+ with 232.5kg. David Carter broke the World M65+
record with 157.5kg. Terry Smith at 82.5 kg broke the World Master 50+ record with
202.5 kg.
Steve Knight still found time to lift the Open bench and dead lift titles after coaching
every lifter from Kidderminster and with his most excellent team of helper’s settingup these championships.
Best overall Open bench Presser with 151 points was Gerrard Hart. Kevin Maher won
Best Master Bench Presser with 162 points.
On the Single lift dead lift: A World record was broken by Stuart Murray 125 kg
class Master 50+ with 275.5 kg. David Carter broke a World Masters 65+ record with
260 kg. Paul Murphy broke M45+ with 283.5 kg. Geraint Nicholas broke the M50+ at
90kg World record with 250 kg. The real ding dong battle was in the 100 kg junior
class with Samuel Boys new World record lift of 280.5 kg piping both Matt Hardy
and Jack Kelly.
Best overall Open dead lifter with 191 points was Andrew Cairney. (NEEDS HIS
LIFT FIGURES)
Were we treated to a huge number of records being broken, 44 World, 31 European
and 48 British in all categories colour coded on the score sheets.
Phil Powell Powerlifting Champion in the 1970’s presented all Saturday lifters with
gold statues and certificates. Kevin Murray Junior Powerlifting Champion of the
1980’s presented all Sunday lifters with gold statues and certificates.
Steven and Mark Smith presented the Annual Memorial Shield in Memory of Brian
Smith. David Carter was given, to his surprise, a Lifetime Achievement Award. David
has 23 World titles to his name, hundreds of records – British, European and World
and has organized many Championships himself. He is surely a contender for the Best
Powerlifter of all time accolade.
The BPO have received mountains of positive feed-back about the venue facilities and
location.
The organizers have asked us to acknowledge that without the help of sponsors many
of them internationally known companies such as Citizen Integrated Media, Brinton’s
Carpets, MCL, Global Exhibitions, Concept Furniture, Kolorkraft, College AV as
well as The Glades Leisure Centre and local hotels that the competition could not
have been staged in this manner. Sponsorship is vital to the future success of our
sport.
With all these great lifter performances, the British Team will be a formidable force to
combat the lifters at the forthcoming 2014 European Championships at Voiron,
France on 20th to 22nd June.
The GB team for the 2014 World Championships in Voiron, France from the 7th to the
9th November will be selected from these performances, with the existing defending
champions.
Report: The Crane