Powerlifting Varsity win for CUPLC
Cambridge 2496.9 - Oxford 2330.4 Results
Oxford hosted the 2018 Varsity match in Elite Bodyworks gym in Basingstoke. The Cambridge lifters arrived being hyped up after hours of ‘lit tunes’ in their road trips on the way over. After 5 consecutive wins for Cambridge in the past 5 years, Cambridge was feeling decidedly confident, however, Oxford had shaped up this year with a formidable team, including the likes of Aron Hegedus and Claire Sear. Quickly some of us realised this match may be much closer than we had hoped. However, although Cambridge had lost some of its strongest lifters from last year, we had also gained some incredibly talented newcomers, such as Remi-Rufus Toye. And Raghul Parthipan was fully confident and excited to “deliver another powerlifting seminar and show these Oxfordians how to lift”.
After much complaining from the Cambridge side about how “damned cold this gym is”, the lifting began. The lifting took place in 2 flights. The lighter flight went first. Our women Lucy “I’d rather be lifting equipped” Hart and Suzanne “Captan-Bae” Goulder put up strong squats of 125kg and 120kg respectively, matched only by Oxford’s Zoe Clark and Claire Sear.
The shockingly light Remi Rufus-Toye with abs you could grate cheese on put up an impressive 150kg squat after weighing in at only 59.6kg (!!!). However, he unfortunately missed his last attempt of 152.5kg as he was one crampy boiiii that day. CUPLC’s new golden child, Raghul “Sal Jr” Parthipan unfortunately missed his 165kg opener on depth, drawing much animosity from the Cambridge crowd. Luckily he came back to hit it and made a big jump to 182.5kg on his third attempt, which he moved so fast it might as well have been the bar.
In the 2nd flight, Lim Hang Sheng squatted an extremely impressive 185kg and Dennis “really a bodybuilder” Mubaiwa and CUPLC president squatted 212.5kg high bar, with a knee injury. As always, King Khan did all his squats at RPESal, hitting 235kg easily on his third. Vikram “Who?” Thakur, after a deep meditation session, had no issues with squats, hitting an impressive 215kg PB. Will “Rugby LAD” Slaughter went up, with Suzie praying he’d hit depth for once and managed to indeed make a good 197.5kg squat. “If I had a” Nikul Patel hit 197.5kg with no issues and the same blank expression and cool demeanour he carries everywhere.
However, the smiles were temporarily wiped off of Cambridge’s faces when we saw David Jia, an Oxford lifter weighing only 86kg hit a 237.5kg squat! And Aron Hegedus, screaming and charging at the bar like an enraged bull, hit 247.5kg. Luckily we still had Frank “The Tank” Sanders, who wowed everyone with the biggest squat of the competition of 270kg.
Then came the Bench Press. In the lighter flight, Suzie got her 70kg opener but sadly missed 72.5kg twice. Meanwhile the Oxford women had some extremely impressive benchers, such as Claire Sear and Zoe Clark who hit 77.5kg and 75kg respectively, with Zoe unfortunately just missing 80kg. Raghul and Remi had no issue with Bench, getting 115kg and 105kg respectively.
In the heavier flight, Dennis used those big beautiful arms to move 152.5kg well after missing it on his second attempt. Henry Trunley also got 145kg at only 80kg bodyweight. King Khan of course had no issues, hitting 160kg, the best bench for body weight of the competition. Gary He, with his frankly humongous upper body, close grip benched 145kg, and Frank hit 165kg. Cambridge was pulling ahead after the bench, although lifters like Aron Hegedus were making us work for it, hitting 157.5kg.
In the deadlift, Suzanne Goulder got an impressive 147.5kg deadlift, the second biggest of all the female lifters. However, she sadly just missed out on her full blue when 155kg just wasn’t there on her third attempt. Meanwhile, Oxford’s Claire Sear made Cambridge’s jaws drop with a 165kg deadlift, giving her a 400 Wilks score. The pressure was on in the deadlifts. Raghul Parthipan got 187.5kg incredibly easily making it look like a warm up and giving him a 385 wilks and his full blue. Remi also secured a blue and 390 Wilks with a very impressive 200kg deadlift, sadly just missing 205kg.
Han Sheng got a huge 215kg deadlift for a 66kg lifter, giving him a 391 Wilks and his blue. The tension started to rise as the weights went up. Dennis hit a huge 265kg easily, nodding to the audience at the top, and Sal picked up an absolutely stupendous 290kg like he was picking up his groceries to tremendous cheers from the Cambridge lifters. That really started to make the Oxford lifters murmur nervously amongst themselves. However, Oxford was not done yet. Their biggest, 120kg+ lifter, Alex Holness-Tofts got 280kg, although missed 300kg on his last attempt. Aron Hegedus, in a cloud of chalk, came out screaming and beating his chest, to deadlift 305kg at only 100kg bodyweight, to a mighty roar from the crowd. Finally, Frank “The Tank” approached the bar, hitting 300kg for his first attempt, then 320kg for his second, equalling his PB and securing the biggest deadlift of the day. Sadly he just missed 325kg on his third attempt, although not for lack of hype.
We all waited with baited breath for the results to be counted. We all knew it would be close this year. After what felt like forever, a huge cheer erupted from the Cambridge lifters when they checked the scores. We had won for the 6th consecutive year. However, Oxford had made us work for it as the score was the closest it had been in years. All in all, a tremendous day of cheering, lifting and trying to avoid ending up on Anthony Baston’s vlog (hey guys, did you know he vlogs?) for Cambridge. A huge well done goes out to the Oxford lifters who were a force to be reckoned with this year, as well as a massive well done to all those who achieved their blues and half blues.
The day ended as always, with us convincing Dennis to take his top off and give us some muscle ups, and a big group topless photo.
Written by Steven Smithies
Full Blues (new):
- Lim Han Sheng – 391.6 Wilks
- Remi Rufus-Toye – 390.4 Wilks
- Raghul Parthipan – 385.7 Wilks
- Nikul Patel – 380.3 Wilks
- Henry Trunley – 379.4 Wilks
- Gary He - 375.6 Wilks
Half Blues (new):
- Vikram Thakur - 366.7 Wilks
- William Slaughter - 364.2 Wilks
- Lucy Hart - 357.7 Wilks
