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CPO Nationals and Unified Powerlifting America's Cup
June 3rd and 4th Calgary Alberta This was a great meet for me and a splendid success for the CPO and GPC who cooperated together to put on a top notch competition...most of you know the background but for those of you who dont ..the CPO is the new affilliate of the WPC/ WPO in Canada, this newly revitalized fed replaces the CPC...Andrey Butenko and his volunteers have a tremendous attitude for Canadian Powerlifting..they have formed to make Powerlifting grow and prosper in this country without any political static towards the other existing federations here (CPU GPC CPA CDFPA ) this meet was one of cooperation and forward thinking....and the excitement of the meet and high quality proves that the CPO is on the right track to success...Independent Powerlifting an arm of the Global Powerlifting Commitee for Canada brought judges from California and Chicago to help with record setting priorities..and this high caliber of judging dispelled rumours that getting a lift passed in the meet would be 'easy' --the quality of lifting was great and powerful and the lifters were very helpful to each and every contestant...the audience was more attentive and excited than any I've seen in the entire year...everyone had a blast ..there was a great venue ..2 monolifts in the warm up room..a DJ during the meet who made the place sizzle with energy..and excellent announcing, phenomenal spirit and strength ...it's is too soon to list all the competitors and scores but visit this site to find the CPO details asap Click Here for CPO REsults The Blackfoot Inn is a great hotel with a fine bar..a Yuk Yuk's comedy club --excellent dining and terrific rooms..the service here was excellent all the way around (My Mesa Az. Meet experience was the total opposite for the hotel venue) We had a spacious place to warm up and people volunteered to operate the monolifts and load plates ....there was fresh fruit served like a fancy restaurant --fresh GOOD coffee and pitchers of ice water constantly freshened and supplied for all flights right there in the warm up room...now,when looking at this update on the main page realize that when I dont have Nancy carpenter or Bruce Everett with me to take pictures...I'm too busy getting set for my own lifting to get a true overview of the contestants who might be doing the BEST lifting of the meet so the photos I show have left out some of the very best but I do my best to give you the flavor of the meet thru my eyes...plus some pics that could've been great might not have 'turned out' when the film was developed.. Highlights for me were seeing many new faces in the warm up room just blasting the weights up like feathers...and not having a 'hot shot' attitude about it..I enlisted help from Clint Harwood who ended up with the highest bench of the day 705 pounds --I think Mario tried 750 but there were some problems with that one and Clint ended up the big bencher..I was stunned by my friend Tony Tomra's lifting he got a huge 790 KILO total and set PR's right and left..he and his wife helped me a great deal too..this might have been his best meet ever ! In the masters 3 lift I had a very high coefficient and thought I might win best master ..but it dawned on me Gary Bobrovitz (a TV Reporter in Calgary and multi federation champion) weighed in at 'nuthin' and lifted like "SUMPTHIN" for 3 World records..so at a young 54, he got best masters 3 lift award--also just too damn impressive was Bruce McIntyre..his lifts were on fire on this day !!.also in the 3 lift my longtime friend Bert Merriman was injured and was going to token ...he ended up pulling anything but a token 551 deadlift at 57 years and 100KG class I think...I got 4 GPC World records totalling 700 KILOS and breaking J.M. Caveliers 60-64 records by 50 KILOS-( I wore single ply TITAN gear and drug tested AWPC to establish the 60-64 World records there too) -the 512 pound squat shoulda been easy but it wasn't and I only then benched an easy World record 501 and deaded a 529 ...I'm pleased because when my body was screaming "Take the easy way out...take a light deadlift and settle for 2 world records--give me a break I'm dyin here!!!" I didn't listen and pulled the 529 to get the even 700 goal...I wanted to give up so bad ...but on the platform when I had a hard lift the audience and spotters were yelling "Keep going--do it ! dont give up" and it was that inspiration that got me thru the 3 lift meet and a further Bench only meet RIGHT AFTER where I received best masters bencher award...I'm was impressed by the other masters lifters (some older than me by 10 years) the womens group was strong and impressive to watch as well and I got to meet Legendary lifters/judges Bob Packer and Jim Rouse from the USA. A fun,impressive and exciting start to a new era in lifting for Canada! Click Here for Independant Power Website Click Here for GPC website |