Oxford University Powerlifting Club

GBPF British Universities Championships (BUCS) 2009

 

 

Go here for the results.

We've just got back from the British University Championships after taking the win for Oxford for the second time running. In the end the top three were Scott 'Red Baron' Mclaughlan with 356 wilks, Rob 'Iron Spine' Pearce with 336 wilks and myself 'Special K' with 371. As you can see, our top guys have averaged over 350 wilks point which is a formidable level to set the bar for any other universities getting their hopes up.

It was a very successful weekend for all our first-time competitors with the best attempt choices i have seen from our club to date. Jake 'J-Bear' Yorke kept a cool head throughout and ended up with a second place in the 125 kg class (!!!!!!!!) thanks to confidence on the platform and level-headed attempt choices. His flight was full of strong, experienced lifters but he consistently succeeded through all his lifts as his reckless opponents bombed out all around him, with their ridiculous openers crushing them into the ground HAHAHAHA!!!!!

Gareth 'B-Rex' Ellis had the perfect first competition. He blitzed his previous bests by a mile and still has kilos left in all his lifts; powering him into the top 10 Squat list. He also single handedly updated the OUPLC twitter feed, mailing list and filmed a shed-load of videos.... all of this from the competition hall itself!!!!!

Martin did extremely well and made very wise attempt choices, he lifted at the same time as me so i do not recall precisely all of his attempts but the videos will be up soon!

Arash had a solid meet with some concrete increases on his Squat and Deadlift. He has it clear in his mind what he's going to do with his training to continue his success at the next comp and will be back in the gym with fresh determination. You will see his name on the top 10 deadlift records VERY soon indeed, i guarantee it.

The veteran of powerlifting (and ex-OUPLC member) Tiffany Croker was there from plymouth and was part of our crowd for the day. She performed very well and was happy with her lifts, especially since she had a lot of strength left in the tank!

Major thanks to Arash and Gareth for driving everyone down to Bournemouth and big thanks to everyone for helping each other out in the warmup room, platform walkway and with filming and cheering.
Paul Rees put on a stellar event and gave special mention to us on countless occasions and, with most of the GB team being present (including heavy-weight champion Dean Bowring), we have truly spread our name out to the entire GBPF.

Karl Seddon
OUPLC President

 

GBPF British Universities Championships (BUCS) 2008 

 

[UPDATE: Video]

Well, it was FANTASTIC!

Well done to everyone who competed. I must admit that when I realized
how cold the venue was, a little voice in my head went 'I'm glad I'm
not lifting today!'  That sports hall was about 10 degrees C so I
won't be surprised if quite a few of you have pretty sore muscles this
morning.

How did we do? Well:

- best unequipped lifted lifter in the 67.5 class in the form of the
beast that is Karl Seddon. As a little side note, he also took the
British squat record on his way. Well done Karl!

- on the 75 class - Robin, our newest member, just dominated this group
winning by something silly like 50-60 wilks points (correct me if it
was actually more than that mate!). I know he is ever so slightly
disappointed with his 3rd pull but you can't complain if you win your
class with a pb total. Some carefully selected weights by yours truly
(ahem) and an awesome performance by another new boy with plenty of
potential, Adam Sandel, gave him a very well deserved 2nd in this
class.

- 82.5 boys: 1st, 2nd and 3rd places went to OUPLC here! (and before
any smart ass says 'out of three?' there were actually over 10 people
in this weight class). Dan Selmi, ex-club captain (and sportsman of the
year btw), won this class with a very professional performance (even
though I am starting to deadlift about as much as he is!). Dan seems to
be an expert at pitching his attempts. He eeks every 2.5kg out of his
lifts and leaves very little weight on the platform especially with the
squats and benches. Scott (monster bencher) came second with a great
comp and Tristan got third place. I was watching Tristan squat from the
warm-up area and boy can this guy squat! Part of me really wants to put
some wraps and a suit on him and see what he's capable of.
Jacob put in a great performance. His points unfortunately did not
count towards team points but if they did, he would've been right in
there with a medal.

Alisdair, our resisdant librarian/powerhouse, lifted in this class too.
After a token squat due to injury, he achieved what he wanted out of
the bench and deads.

There were no 90 and 100 lifters from ouplc.

On to the 110s and what can I say. This guy truly deserves praise.
Truly dedicated to the sport and to ouplc, Luke Pike put in a
gruesomely long day yesterday.  He spent his entire morning
coaching/ loading and helping out in the warm-up room and didn't start
lifting till well after 3. He was not only helping OUPLC lifters but at
one stage started dishing out advice to some random newbie who looked
totally lost. He won his class and made us really sweat with his 3rd
deadlift after an unlucky first two attempts. He also got 2nd best
unequipped lifter overall across the weight classes. Well done!

Although as yet unofficial, it looks like we won best university team.
Plenty of trophies and medals to bring home and yet more justification
for support from SportsFed and Oxford Blue.

 

- Sam Hazbun, Team Manager