This seasons U9s Coach and also occasional Vet, Russ Kirby was cruelly pushed into 4th place on the final round of lifts while representing Great Britain in the recent Power Lifting Championships held in Finland.
While many of the club members were recovering from the excesses of the Annual Ball, Russ was recovering in Finland from a transatlantic flight and beginning his attempt to win a gold for Great Britain at the IPF Powerlifting Championships - not the ideal preparation for such a prestigious event - but mortgages have to be paid!!.
The competition involves 3 lifts - bench press, squat press and finally the deadlift. In the event Russ won a bronze for his squat of 270kg and was really quite happy with his bench press of 177.5kg but unfortunately he got 3 reds when trying to deadlift 285kg which would have been a PB. ( yes these weights are in kilogrammes - Russ was competing in the Masters 105kg group so the weight he failed to lift was almost 3 times his own bodyweight).
If you want to watch the video stream click here although it is almost 3 hrs so best to skip through to the Masters 105 kg competition)
Congratulations to Russ for his fantastic achievement - I'm sure if anyone fancies trying a bit of power lifting Russ will be only to pleased to introduce you to the sport.