Christchuch, New Zealand, December, 2001
Reported by Larry Miller
Before I begin summarizing the results of this years IPF Bench Press Worlds, I would like to invite those bench press specialists to attend the 2004 bench press worlds to be held in Cleveland, Ohio. The Japanese have dominated the world bench press meets and hold a majority of the single lift bench press records. The Japanese will be competing when the meet comes to the U.S. and would like to compete against our best. The qualifying meet will be the 2004 bench press nationals. This gives lifters in every organization plenty of time to train in a single ply shirt and become familiar with USA PL rules. It would be great to see U.S. lifters dominate a true international event and it appears that a large number of countries ( in the neighborhood of 30-40) will be attending.
This year's 12th IPF Bench Press Worlds were held in Christchurch, New Zealand. The Bench Worlds are always held the first weekend in December and are usually held somewhere in a cold European country. My wife Julie and I traveled to Sydney, Australia prior to arriving in New Zealand. Both countries have their summers during December, so the weather is quite pleasant. Considering the great weather and topless beaches, I would vote to have every IPF competition held in Australia or New Zealand. As an extra plus, we would probably not have any trouble getting coaches to attend at their own expense.
We received a very warm welcome in New Zealand. Everyone was very friendly and best yet, there were no language barriers. Sydney was an awesome city with café's everywhere as well as shopping mall after shopping mall. Sydney's aquarium was unbelievable as it allowed you to watch the activity in the harbor including some nice sized sharks swimming about. We could watch the surfers from our hotel room. My only complaint was their annoying flies which were relentless. New Zealand had beautiful mountain ranges, close encounters with seals, dolphins and whale watching. If you're a hiker, you will be in paradise.
The opening ceremonies were held outdoors and included a tribal dance called the "haka" performed by the native "Maouri". This dance was duplicated by a number of our lifters at the banquet but had a bit of "Whaaaats up" U.S. flavor. They also had a custom of rubbing noses but I tried to refrain since I didn't want to injure any one.
The meet was relatively small by IPF standards. My guess was that it was due to the expense of getting to New Zealand. The meet venue was at the Town Centre Hall which was theatre like in its set up. The meet was highly promoted in the local papers and television. U.S. lifter Debbie Ferrell was featured on the front page of their sports section. Mike Hodge and I were interviewed for television prior to the meet and Jennifer Thompson appeared on television following her lifts.
Our coaches were Mike Hartle and Sandra Perron. I thought we would be short handed but our lifters competing on Sunday, helped with the women lifting on Friday and everything else fell into place. Sandra was supposed to lift but broke her foot 4 weeks out. Sandra did all the pre-meet work and helped get the lifters situated for their flights. She also did the numbers for a few lifters. I thought Mike did a fantastic job calling the numbers for our team. I believe that if it weren't for Mike we would've been a few medals short in the final count. The Japanese men's and women's team were the pre-meet favorites.
The women's competition began with Eva Svjantakova from Slovakia winning the 44kg class with a bench of 87.5kg. U.S. lifter Ruth Snyder finished 6th with a lift of 55 kg. Ruth's husband Steve was an enormous help with the lifters in the warm up area, helping to load the bar and helping with bench shirts. In the 48 kg class, the Japanese lifters began their gold medal attack and finished 1st and 2nd. Yukako Fukushima finished with a phenomenal lift of 117.5 kg which gave her the best lifter award. I did an interview with some members of the Japanese team including Yukako which will hopefully be published in a few months. In the 52 kg class, Japanese lifter Syoko Sakura finished first with a 100 kg bench. Chinese Tipai lifter Li-Min Liu won gold in the 56 kg class on bodyweight over Swedish lifter Riita Liimatuanen with a lift of 97.5 kg. The 60 kg class had 2 U.S. lifters competing. Jill Darling showed a lot of character after missing 112.5 kg on her second attempt and finished with 115 on her third attempt for a bronze medal. Jennifer Thompson did likewise, after missing 122.5 kg on her second; she lifted 127.5 on her third for one of two U.S. gold medals. Jennifer came with her husband Donovan who like Steve Snyder helped in the back putting on bench shirts and loading the bar. Jennifer finished 2nd overall in the best lifter category. Jennifer has only been competing for 3 years and is relatively tall with long arms for a bencher. In the 67.5 kg class, multi-world champion Clara Kasbarian from France won with a lift of 137.5 kg. I attempted to invite Clara to the bench worlds in 2004 in the U.S. but my French and her English led to a snafu. The U.S. scored more team points with 2 lifters in the weight class, Angela Simmons and Tammi Callahan. Tammi finished in fifth with a bench press of 105 kg and Angela finished in seventh with a lift of 92.5 kg. Austrian lifter Claudia Narovnigg won the 75 kg class with a bench of 125 kg. U.S. lifter Brooke Wessler who trains at Kings Gym with me and Steve Petrencak developed fluid in her ear while flying to the meet. She was dizzy and ended up dropping almost 10 lbs. of bodyweight. Brooke very well could have won had she not been ill but none the less she won a bronze medal with a lift of 112.5 kg. Czech lifter Andrea Kubinova won the 82.5 kg class with a bench of 145 kg. Andrea Sortwell finished in 5th with a master's world record bench of 117.5 kgs. Irina Naskrypyak from Russia finished ahead of her teammate to win the 90 kg class with a lift of 145 kg. The 90+ kg class featured a show down between Chinese lifter Chen-Yeh Chao and U.S. lifter Debrorah Ferrell. Deb had the silver locked in on her opener and went for 180 kg on her third attempt for the gold. Deb looked much stronger than the Chinese lifter but just missed her big third attempt. I have no doubt who will win the gold next year. Deb spent a day in bed following the meet with some bruised ribs. After being featured in the paper and television she probably could have won an election for mayor.
Team points for the top three teams were Japan 59 points, China 56 points and the U.S. ladies finished in 3rd with 49 points. Yukako Fukushima from Japan finished in first for best overall and had a fourth attempt of 123 kg passed. She may be the first female lifter to do a triple body weight bench press. U.S. lifter Jennifer Thompson finished second overall followed by French lifter Clara Kasbarian.
In the men's division, German lifter Christian Klein won the 52 kg class on bodyweight with a bench of 127.5 kg. Japan began their gold medal collection with Yuji Miyazaki winning the 56 kg class with a big bench of 175 kg and missing a world record attempt of 182.5 on his third. Training partner Steve Petrencak won a bronze medal finishing third with a bench of 150 kg. Steve missed the silver on bodyweight by .1 kg. I hope he weighed in with nothing on. Steve's bench continues to improve but he needs a lot of help on the dance floor. In the 60 kg class Japanese legend Hyroyuki Isagawa edged out multi-world champion and fan favorite Tagy Parnian with a bench of 190 kg. I thought I was the world's worst dancer but Tagy made Petencak and me look like Fred Astaire. Lance Slaughter has competed internationally for a few years now and he finally took home a medal with a third place bench of 180 kg. Polish lifter Pawel Pracownik won the class with a lift of 192.5 kg. In past years, this class has been a battle between Itoh of Japan and Sivikon of Kazakastan. I was told that Itoh had been doing an astonishing 230 kg in training but although his 215 went up 3 times, it was not to the satisfaction of the referees. I was planning on a three man race in the 75 kg division. I missed my opener but I had a high lot number. I repeated it and had it passed on my second. Mike Hara was following world record holder Keisuke Takahashi from Japan. Mike had the lowest body weight of the three of us. His third attempt of 227.5 equaled Takahashi's second attempt. Takahashi went for 230 on his third but it went up uneven. I went for 230 and although it came off my chest well, it stalled and Mike had the gold as well as the new master's bench world record. I will be seeing Mike again at the Master's Bench Worlds in Texas this April. In the 82.5 kg class Alexy Vorobyev won hands down with a world record bench of 250 kg. Mike Hartle started U.S. lifter Leonard McCormick out conservatively at 225 kg which was good enough for the silver. Leonard is thinking about retiring but I am trying to keep him around until 2004 when the meet returns home to the U.S. Dennis Cieri represented the U.S. in the 90 kg class. Dennis blew out his shirt on his opener which put him in the hole. Japanese lifter Yoichi Kishimoto won the class with a world record lift of 250 kg. We had a bit of trouble in the 100 kg class. World record holder Szabolcs Onozo from Hungary upped his record to 275 kg. Ohio lifter Ralph Young looked as strong as I'd ever seen him and Ralph looked like silver was a sure thing. Japanese lifter Shinichi Hara made a big 10 kg jump on his third attempt and appeared to own the silver. Unfortunately for him the lift was protested by Hartle due to a seam across his bench shirt that looked like a tear to me. The judges found it to be an illegal repair and the Silver went back to Ralph which was great cause I was getting nervous seeing all of that steam coming out of his ears. The 110 kg class was also quite interesting. Polish lifter Wieslaw Kruk won the gold with a lift of 275 kg. Japanese lifter Masashi Saitoh was second with a lift of 267.5 kg. Japanese coach Susumu Yoshida protested Kruk's winning lift as one of the side referees continually red lighted him for lifting his buttocks off the bench. I decided to look for myself and I had to agree with Susumu but the Jury indicated that it was a judgment call and would not reverse the call. U.S. lifter Dave Doan finished in 7th with a bench of 242.5 kg. The U.S. team tried to make Dave more comfortable by repeating his daughter's chant of "go daddy go". Eduard Isakov from Russia won the 125 kg class with a lift of 277.5 kg. The U.S. had two lifters, Collin (Pooh Bear) Rhodes and Scott (I can dance) Lade. Unfortunately Scott just missed a medal in finishing 4th with a bench of 257.5 kg. Collin won the bronze with a 265 kg bench and was just 2.5 kg away from the silver. Collin looked strong and went for a 4th attempt but somehow timed out. The 125+ kg class featured overall best lifter Daisuke Midote from Japan. Midote finished with a 300 kg bench and U.S. heavy weight lifter Mike Hodge won the bronze with a bench of 272.5 kg. After helping Mike in the back, it is apparent that Mike should be able to give Midote a run if he can get a bench shirt that fits.
The Japanese won the team title with 66 points. The U.S. finished second with 54 points. Poland was third with 40 points. Mike Hara was fourth overall on formula for best lifter which is quite an accomplishment.
Unfortunately our team t-shirts from Ricky Crain came to Sandra Perron's house the day she left and then didn't make it to New Zealand in time. John Inzer sent the team singlets and other goodies. John also supplied a large number of our lifters with bench press shirts in a very timely manner. This years meet asides from the low turnout ( 21 teams attended), was a great time. The team worked together and we managed 8 medals in the men's division and 4 in the women's division. Next year is Luxembourg and I would love to see lifters from all organizations jump aboard to compete in Cleveland in 2004.
