World Drug Free Powerlifting Championships  -  Bradford, England.  September, 2009

Our two South Australian women, Natalia Zacharko of Adelaide and Rose Gow of Barmera, represented Australia at the World Drug Free Single Lift Championships held at Bradford University in England on September 11th, 12th and 13th.  Both girls did extremely well in their events.

Natalia Zacharko, with a body weight of 62.3 kg (M4) lifted a massive world and national bench press record of 75kg in the equipped section and 72.5 kg in the unequipped section.  Natalia, who is a bench press specialist, finished 3rd overall in each section.

Rose Gow, the pocket rocket, with a body weight of 51.2kg (M2) lifted in the squat, bench press and deadlift (equipped).  Her results were squat, 105 kg and deadlift of 140.5 which were state, national and world records.  Her bench press was 55 kg, which was a new state and national records.  Well done girls.

Drug Free Powerlifting Championship Results: 01 November 2008

There was no room for faint hearts in the Barmera Recreation Centre: every registered lifter set at least one State and/or National record! The excellent results show that lifters had their training cycles tuned to peak on the day, which is always the desired outcome: well done lifters and coaches!

In the Single Lift events, guest lifter from Adelaide, Dave Thomas, posted a solid 130Kg BP @ a bodyweight of 95.85 in the Unequipped M1 category, and evergreen Val Vanstone pushed the National M8 90Kg class Deadlift record to 60Kg. Gale Febig delivered a National Unequipped M4 70Kg class record of 50Kg as a reward for her hard work. M7 67.5Kg class stalwart, Malcolm Barber nailed a classy National Unequipped record BP of 81Kg, and Sean Simpson dug deep to ram a nice 85Kg BP National record in the Junior Masters Equipped division.

Records also toppled throughout the 3-Lift championship section as well. Local ‘pocket powerhouse' Rose Gow took out the Best Equipped Lifter Female award while posting National Equipped records of S 105.5, BP 52.5 and DL 135Kg for the M2 53Kg class @ a bodyweight of 51.05Kg.
Lee McKinnon set M1Equipped 58.5Kg class records in the S 60 and BP 38Kg on her way to a fine 168Kg total. Both these lifters obviously inspired ‘the field', for Barb Juers then waltzed across the Equipped M6 58.5Kg class National record book with S 80, BP 50 and DL 100Kg.
Visually-impaired athlete, Brad Henderson from the Barossa Valley, enjoyed another successful competition making a State Equipped S 75Kg record on his 4th attempt and BP 60Kg record as well. His DL of 115Kg saw Brad post a 245Kg total which is sure to help him in his main activity of competitive athletics.
Crowd favourite, Trevor Vanstone out-muscled ‘Father Time' yet again to succeed with National Equipped M9 75Kg class records of S 55, BP 47.5 and DL 100.5Kg: a great day out!
Best Equipped Lifter Male ‘hardware' winner Aaron McFarlane's smooth fighting performances in the Open 82.5Kg division presented him with S 190, State record BP 130 and State record DL 215Kg.
Sheryl Rapson performed really well to take out the Best Unequipped Lifter Female ‘jewellery' with impressive National Junior Master 90+Kg records of S 80, BP 57.5 and DL 120Kg @ a bodyweight of 93.25Kg.
Lifting @ 106.05Kg, David Wescombe-Down worked through some nagging tendon injuries to set State Open 110Kg and National M5 110Kg class records S 165 (4th attempt), BP 120 and DL 180Kg (4th attempt).

From a competition aspect "That's all folks!!" for this year. Sincere thanks to everyone involved in making the State championships so successful, and also to all those who have contributed in various ways all through 2008. We gratefully acknowledge the support from our sponsors and ask our members to ‘recycle' sponsors' generosity by in turn supporting their business activities when sourcing goods and services. Without the financial support of business, local government, service organisations and individuals, life in unfunded amateur sport would be very bleak.

‘Thank You' too, and well done to our committee members and all officials for their 2008 efforts, and a Merry Christmas with a safe and happy 2009 for all our members and readers.

Australian Drug Free Powerlifting Championships - Bendigo, August 2nd and 3rd, 2008

Ten South Australian Powerlifters travelled to Bendigo to take part in the National Championships recently and brought home 26 world, 33 national and 30 state records.

State President and Coach, Don Juers, was very pleased with the efforts of all lifters considering there had been a lot of illness leading up to the competition.

Lifters achieving world records for the first time were Sheryl Rapson, Lee McKinnon and Malcolm Barber. Sheryl recorded a 115 kg squat and 120 kg deadlift, Lee performed a 55 kg squat and 70 kg deadlift while Malcolm pressed a 75kg benchpress. Other lifters to achieve world records included Rose Gow (100 squat, 50 benchpress and 140 deadlift), Barb Juers (80.5 squat, 50.5 benchpress and 100.5 deadlift), Jade Faralley (60 benchpress, 125 deadlift), Nat Zacharko (75 benchpress), Gale Fiebig (100 deadlift), and 82 year old Trevor Vanstone (52.5 squat, 50 benchpress and 100 deadlift). Tanya McMahon achieved a national record of 100 kg in the deadlift.

Best Overall Female Lifter was awarded to Rose Gow.

South Australian President and Coach, Don Juers, was re-elected as Co-Vice President of the executive of the Australian Association. Nat Zacharko and Don Juers had their referee status upgraded to the ranks of international referees and are now able to officiate at world events and ratify world records.

Cobdogla  Classic  Powerlifting  Competition  -  May 24th, 2008

At the final tune-up before the Bendigo Nationals in August, fair weather, typical Riverland hospitality and record-breaking lifters made for another excellent weekend at the Cobdogla Club venue.  Seven female and nine male lifters from T1 to M9 age groups did battle with the metal in Equipped and Unequipped categories of single and three lift competitions.

 A special welcome was extended to Brad Henderson, a visually impaired T2 lifter in the 65 kg class who posted a State Record 70 kg squat on his 3rd attempt along the way to a 230 kg total.

M2 Rose Gow, at 50.85 kg, posted a 290 kg total which featured a 142.5 kg third attempt deadlift.  We wait and watch to see what lies ahead for Rose at this year's Nationals??  Rose also won Best Lifter for the women and Dean Jenkinson took the men's Best Lifter hardware with an excellent 205-135-230-570 kg performance.

State records fell all afternoon with other big lifts from:

Women

Lee McKinnon M1 @ 57.4 kg - Squat 65 kg

Barbera Juers M6 @ 60.45 kg - Squat 80.5 kg, Bench 50.5 kg, Deadlift 101 kg, and Total 232 kg

Nat Zacharko M4 @ 60.6 kg - Bench 70 kg (4th attempt)

Jade Farrelly T3 @ 62.6 kg - Squat 90 kg, Bench 55 kg

Sheryl Rapson JM @ 95.15 kg - Bench (single lift) 62.5 kg

Men

Trevor Vanstone M9 @ 72.55 kg - Squat 55.5 kg, Bench 55.5 kg, Deadlift 101 and Total 212 kg

Aaron McFarlane Open @ 79.9 kg - Squat 190 kg

Tyrone Sharp T1 @ 89.5 kg - Squat 72.5 kg (4th attempt), Bench 47.5 kg, Deadlift 110 kg and Total 215 kg

David Wescombe-Down Open & M5 @ 106.35 kg - Squat 185 kg, Bench 125 kg, Deadlift, 182,5 kg and Total 492.5 kg

Congratulations and thanks to all lifters for their hard work, which capped off a great day made possible by the referees, spotters, loaders, sponsors, Neil Gow (equipment transport), expediters, announcer, attempt monitors and everyone else who played a part.  No less than FIVE birthdays were celebrated at the Presentation Dinner that evening and, judging by some cake-eating performances, we may see severall lifters move up at least one weight division soon!

Best wishes to everyone heading to Bendigo and the rest of us will see you at the SA Titles in November at Barmera.  In the meantime, train hard and continue to beat gravity!

SA   Blind  Open  Championships  Combined  With  SA  Open  Championships  -  November 3rd, 2007

The Barmera YMCA Recreation Centre was the venue for the Open Championships on November 3rd, 2007.

Thirteen lifters battled with the 'iron hardware', taking state records in both vision impaired and sighted divisions.  Two lifters, one male and one female competed in the unassisted class with the remaining eleven lifters choosing the assisted division.

Brad Henderson from the Barossa Valley and Colin Priestley from Morgan lifted well in the blind section.  

Best overall female was Rose Gow, deadlifting just under three times her body weight, followed by Jade Farrelly and Sheryl Rapson (all Riverland lifters).  Best overall male was Dean Jenkinson, in second place, Sean Simpson and third, Charles McMahon ( all Adelaide lifters).  Many state records were again increased in the squat, bench and deadlifts and totals.

State  Benchpress  Championships  -  August 25th, 2007

The 2007 SA Benchpress Championships were held in the Cobdogla District Club on 25th August, 2007.  Seven female and five male lifters competed in the event, setting ten new state records in both assisted and unassisted divisions.

Results

Best Female Benchpress (unassisted)  -  Nat Zacharko

Best Female Benchpress (assisted)  -  Tanya McMahon

Best Male Benchpress (unassisted)  -  Malcolm Barber

Best Male Benchpress (assisted)  -  Phillip Ward

Australian  Drug-Free Powerlifting National Championships  -  August 5th, 2007

Powerlifting SA has reached new heights by competing in the National Championships at Bendigo and bringing home 19 world records.   16 lifters from SA were among the 51 lifters, from around Australia, competing in the event.  

Powerlifting SA President, and coach, Don Juers, said he was overwhelmed by the lifters achievements.

"As the coach, I am very proud of all the competitors.  Beating so many world records was a dream come true.  It was the first time that Powerlifting SA has gone to a national competition and a few people had to fight their nerves."

Along with winning 4 state, 4 national and 4 world records,  Rose  Gow took out the 'Best Overall Female Lifter' in the assisted lifting.

Results

Rose Gow  -  4 state, 4 national, 4 world records               Tanya McMahon  -  4 state, 4 national records

Lee McKinnon  -  4 national records                                 Jade Farrelly  -  4 national records

Gale Fiebig  -  1 state, 1 national, 1 world record               Barb Juers  -  4 national, 4 world records

Val Vanstone  -  1 national, 1 world record                        Sheryl Rapson  -  4 national records

Nat Zacharko  -  1 national, 1 world record                        Phillip Ward  -  1 state, 1 national record

Charlie McMahon  -  4 national, 4 world records                Malcolm Barber  -  1 national record

Trevor Vanstone  -  4 national, 4 world records                 Don Juers  -  1 national record   

Records galore at powerlifting meet

Forty records were broken at Powerlifting SA's Riverland Powerlifting Challenge held at the Cobdogla Club on Saturday.

The Riverland had 12 lifters competing, with Barmera's Rose Gow and Neil Bourton and Glossop's Gale Fiebig among the best.

Gow was the strongest lifter for the competition, lifting 280 kilograms over three lifts, despite weighing in at just 51 kilograms.

Gow was named best overall female lifter over three lifts, while Bourton was the best overall male.

Fiebig was the top female bench press competitior.

The local lifters are now looking forward to the national championships in Bendigo, in early August.

Best overall female - 1. R. Gow (Barmera), 2 T. McMahon (Barmera), 3 J. Farrelly (Barmera).
Best overall male - 1. N. Bourton (Barmera), 2. C. Gow (Barmera), 3 C. McMahon (Adelaide).
Best overall female (bench press) 1. G. Fiebig.
Best overall male (bench press) 1. J. Diehm (Adelaide), 2. N. Bourton (Barmera), 3 M. Barber (KI).

As reported in The Murray Pioneer, Friday June 22, 2007.