Posted by L B Baker on 6/9/2009, 9:57 am
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This past weekend, some of the strongest folks in the country made their way to Peoria, Illinois for the APC National Powerlifting and Bench Press Championships. Men and women of different ages and weights took home individual awards and teams came home with some hardware as well. The Georgia IronDawgs, who won the State championship back in April, have now added more honors. All of the IronDawgs that made the trip came home with the gold; and as you might imagine, with such individual success, comes team achievement as the IronDawgs won the 2009 team title. The Superman of the Century team, mostly out of Florida, was the runner-up. The Georgians got off to a good start on Friday when their teenagers, Jacob Townsend, an alumnus of North Hall, and Tyler Brown, a 2009 graduate of East Hall had record setting days. Townsend set national records in his class (100 kg- about 220.5 lbs.) in the bench press-almost 353 lbs; and the deadlift- over 529 lbs.; and a world record in the squat at almost 557. His total of over 1405 lbs. (637.5 kg) was also a national record. Brown, headed to Western Carolina to play football, set national and world marks in all three lifts: over 650 lbs. on the squat; over 551 on the bench; and almost 535 on the deadlift as well as total- over 1736 lbs. He was granted a 4th attempt on the bench and set that world record even higher with a press of 265 kg. (584.219 lbs.). The strong performances for the IronDawgs continued on Saturday as Dahlonega’s Eric Head had a phenomenal bench press and new world record of over 380 lbs. (172.5 kg), lifting in the Men’s Open 60 kg. (132.276 lb..) class. He later received the Best Lifter Award in the Equipped Class for the achievement. Oakwood’s Jeremiah Kay, in only his 3rd meet ever, struck gold in the raw (unequipped) Men’s Open 75 kg. (165.345 lb.) class. Weighing only about 155 lbs, Kay set a National Record of 137.5 kg. (over 303 lbs.) The international affiliate of the APC, the WUAP, doesn’t keep raw world records, but Kay’s press “unofficially” earns that mark, too. Oakwood’s R. Garry Glenn won another national title with his best bench ever.. In the Men’s 55-59 year old equipped class at 82.5 kg (almost 182 lbs.), Glenn beat the old national mark with his first lift, equaled the WUAP record with his second lift; and set a new world record of 167.5 kg (369.2705 lbs.) on his 3rd lift. It was Glenn’s 4th APC Championships and 5th national title overall. on Sunday, Gainesville’s Yan Howah also added to his many titles with a world record lift of 235 kg (over 518 lbs.) in winning the Master’s men’s 55-59 110 kg. Class. Howah was able to lock out over 551 lbs., but was not given credit for it when he was judged to have beaten the rack command. Earlier, Gainesvillian George Bradley won his 4th National Championship when he did almost 226 lbs. to win the Master’s Men’s 67.5 kg. 50-54 year old division. Gainesville’s Tim Moon won raw Best Lifter Awards in the Master’s and Open’s Men’s classes with his bench of almost 408 lbs.; beating out teammate Kay for the Open Award. The town of Jefferson was well represented over the course of the three days. Brian Collins got almost 364 lbs. to win the Master’s Men’s 40-44 year old Bench class at 82.5; while Michael Rubio took the Open title at 100 kg. with a bench of almost 601 lbs. Rubio’s neighbor, rookie Matt Rawlins, won the full-power event in the men’s raw Open 110 kg. class with national records in the bench (117.5 kg) and dead lift (202.5 kg.) and total (550.5 kg.-almost 1214 lbs.). Other IronDawgs who did full-power and won gold medals include Winder’s Al Hunter in the Master’s men’s 45-49 year old, 125 kg. class with his total of over 1714 lbs.; and the husband-wife duo of L.B. and Svetlana Baker of Bogart. L.B. totaled over 1,058 pounds to win in the Master’s men’s 70-74 year old 90 kg. class; while Svetlana totaled over 650 lbs. in getting the award for the Master’s Women’s 55-59 year old 48 kg. class. “I don’t get to work with everybody on an individual basis, but I work with a lot of ‘em,” said an extremely happy IronDawg team Captain Mike Kidd of Gillsville. “We should be taking a very good team to the World Championships in France this September. With all of these national and world records we had this past weekend, we ought to be very competitive.”

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