CUPLC lifters smash Junior Nationals, bringing back 2nd place in the Men’s 83kg class
Suzie, Meg, Lucy, Sal, Vik, Fadle and Steve headed up to Motherwell at the end of November last year for a weekend of lifting stuff up and putting it back down again (massive creds to Lucy’s parents for driving all the way up there and kudos to Steve for coming all the way up to support us)
First up on the Saturday morning Lucy and Suzie were competing in the 63kg category. Lucy was pretty nervous but managed to go 8/9 totalling 307.5kg, with a huge over-double-bodyweight 117.5kg squat, a 57.5kg bench and a 132.5kg deadlift for a massive 27.5kg total PB!
Suzie unfortunately after a tough training cycle managed to just about not bomb out – after almost missing her opener due to some poor handling skills from a classically distracted Salman, she went on to hit a 120kg squat (equal meet PR but also knee touch PR), 70kg bench and 137.5kg deadlift, going 6/9 in total.
Meg was up next, weighing in as a light 72kg she went for a 115kg squat (unfortunately failing a very speedy 120kg on depth), 57.5kg bench (getting the start command with 1 second to spare) and 132.5kg on deadlift (just about avoiding throwing up during this), going 7/9 – with thanks to fabulous handling by Suzie (who managed to pull herself together). All of these were huge PBs from her last performance in British Unis 2017, made all the more impressive by the fact that she was lifting until around 10:30pm.
We finally made it back to the place where we were staying at after 12am – most of us struggled to sleep until around 3am due to the compulsory intra-meet caffeine overdose. Somehow we all managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 5:30am (as we had to make it down to the venue in time for Salman’s weigh-in).
Salman was in contention for a podium position in the 83kg class. With Suzie on her platform coaching game, she managed to push him to hit lifts which actually looked like they might have been RPE 9 – apart from the cheeky last minute change on the deadlift to 295.5kg to snake into second place which looked like a classic RPESal final deadlift. He went 9/9 with a 237.5kg squat, 162.5kg bench and 295.5kg deadlift – with a 695.5kg total.
Straight afterwards, we were onto Vik’s class – the 93s. He played it safe and went 8/9 with an outstanding performance, only marginally missing his last squat of 205kg on depth (we were all devastated). He finished on 197.5kg, 122.5kg bench and a 230kg deadlift all with plenty more left in the tank.
The excitement wasn’t over yet for CUPLC! Although unfortunately most of us had to head home so couldn’t stay and support (it was a 6 hour drive), Fadle competed in the 105kgs later that day going 6/9, hitting a 205kg squat, 115kg bench and 242.5kg deadlift.
All in all a great weekend for CUPLC - all the lifters made their Captain (Suzie) extremely proud.