Post by "ronnybench" on Apr 21, 2008 18:10:09 GMT -5
Bratislava Slovakia “2008 Masters Bench press World Championships”
Bratislava is the Capital of Slovakia and is located on the Danube River about an hour from the Vienna airport in Austria. Slovakia and the Czech Republic were created from the Soviet block country of Czechoslovakia. It is an industrial nation whose first language is Slovakian and second language is Russian.
My wife Pat and I flew nine hours non stop to Vienna and then took a bus to Bratislava with 15 other American team members, 13 Fins, and a couple of Estonians. As soon as we left the city, the countryside became all neatly tilled farms with more high tech electric generating windmills than I have ever seen before.
From the distance, the city of Bratislava is a combination of yellow buildings with red tile roofs and modern skyscrapers. Up close everything has a layer of industrial grime and looks like it needs vacuuming. It reminded me a lot of Philadelphia before it was scrubbed for the Bi-centennial.
The team was booked into the Hotel Nivy, which was fairly modern, but the halls looked like cell blocks with padded doors. The rooms were as comfortable as any Holiday express excepting the beds, which felt like concrete park benches.
The venue was about ten city blocks away. There were supposed to be shuttle buses running every half hour. I only saw one, when Pat and I rode it to the banquet. The rest of the time most of us walked. The Dom Sportu was a dilapidated sports facility with poor lighting and BYOTP restrooms. The lifting was done in the gymnasium; there was no seating for spectators on the gym floor, just a couple of rows of upper level gallery seating on the far side of the gym. In the back room which was half the gym curtained off down the center, they had four warm up set ups but just one row of benches for lifters to sit on and get geared up. The acoustics were poor and made it difficult to follow from the back room what was happening on the platform. The meet did run very smoothly most of the time.
Dan Gaudreau in his new role as manager and Steve Petrencak as coach did a fine job of stepping up at the last minute to lead the team. Dan went head to head with Gaston, the IPF President, a couple of times and came out on top.
You can review the list of the results on the link in our forum. I will cover the Virginia lifters attempts to the best of my ability. I helped Alan Haines assist Leigh with her warm ups and gear.
Leigh’s opener was 67.5kg/149lbs which she handled with authority. She took it up to 72.5kg/160lbs and was red lighted for lowering the weight at the transition. The lift looked good from where I stood. At this point she had 4th place locked up so the coach put her in for 92.5kg/204lbs. This was what she would need to take bronze. It was also 14 more pounds than here gym pr. I think it was a terrific call on Dan G’s part. Leigh controlled the weight all the way to her chest and pressed it on command. The bar traveled a couple of inches before it stalled. This was great experience for Leigh and will give her the confidence to make this lift in the near future. Leigh finished in 4th and contributed points to the 1st place finish of the USA M1 women’s team.
I was the next lifter from Virginia to lift. I got off schedule in the warm up period and did not have a shirted warm up by last call for changing openers. Estimating from the feel of my raw warm ups, I dropped my opener from 205kg/452lbs to 200kg/440lbs but it wasn’t enough. My first attempt I jumped the press command. I realized this immediately and put the bar back in the rack without taking it down any further. The second attempt went to my chest and was too heavy for me to get past the transition point. We tightened the shirt and I went out for the third attempt. I was still unable to make the lift. In hindsight, I should have insisted on changing to my tighter shirt.
The next day I did all the lift offs for the American team warm ups. I started with Dave Doan and finished with Bill Gillespie from Lynchburg Va. Bill’s opener was 282.5kg/621lbs. It looked really strong but at the last moment bringing it down he lifted his head off the bench. I don’t know what the next two attempts were red lighted for.
In ending this narrative, I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and am very honored to have been a part of the 2008 USAPL Masters Bench Press team.
Bratislava is the Capital of Slovakia and is located on the Danube River about an hour from the Vienna airport in Austria. Slovakia and the Czech Republic were created from the Soviet block country of Czechoslovakia. It is an industrial nation whose first language is Slovakian and second language is Russian.
My wife Pat and I flew nine hours non stop to Vienna and then took a bus to Bratislava with 15 other American team members, 13 Fins, and a couple of Estonians. As soon as we left the city, the countryside became all neatly tilled farms with more high tech electric generating windmills than I have ever seen before.
From the distance, the city of Bratislava is a combination of yellow buildings with red tile roofs and modern skyscrapers. Up close everything has a layer of industrial grime and looks like it needs vacuuming. It reminded me a lot of Philadelphia before it was scrubbed for the Bi-centennial.
The team was booked into the Hotel Nivy, which was fairly modern, but the halls looked like cell blocks with padded doors. The rooms were as comfortable as any Holiday express excepting the beds, which felt like concrete park benches.
The venue was about ten city blocks away. There were supposed to be shuttle buses running every half hour. I only saw one, when Pat and I rode it to the banquet. The rest of the time most of us walked. The Dom Sportu was a dilapidated sports facility with poor lighting and BYOTP restrooms. The lifting was done in the gymnasium; there was no seating for spectators on the gym floor, just a couple of rows of upper level gallery seating on the far side of the gym. In the back room which was half the gym curtained off down the center, they had four warm up set ups but just one row of benches for lifters to sit on and get geared up. The acoustics were poor and made it difficult to follow from the back room what was happening on the platform. The meet did run very smoothly most of the time.
Dan Gaudreau in his new role as manager and Steve Petrencak as coach did a fine job of stepping up at the last minute to lead the team. Dan went head to head with Gaston, the IPF President, a couple of times and came out on top.
You can review the list of the results on the link in our forum. I will cover the Virginia lifters attempts to the best of my ability. I helped Alan Haines assist Leigh with her warm ups and gear.
Leigh’s opener was 67.5kg/149lbs which she handled with authority. She took it up to 72.5kg/160lbs and was red lighted for lowering the weight at the transition. The lift looked good from where I stood. At this point she had 4th place locked up so the coach put her in for 92.5kg/204lbs. This was what she would need to take bronze. It was also 14 more pounds than here gym pr. I think it was a terrific call on Dan G’s part. Leigh controlled the weight all the way to her chest and pressed it on command. The bar traveled a couple of inches before it stalled. This was great experience for Leigh and will give her the confidence to make this lift in the near future. Leigh finished in 4th and contributed points to the 1st place finish of the USA M1 women’s team.
I was the next lifter from Virginia to lift. I got off schedule in the warm up period and did not have a shirted warm up by last call for changing openers. Estimating from the feel of my raw warm ups, I dropped my opener from 205kg/452lbs to 200kg/440lbs but it wasn’t enough. My first attempt I jumped the press command. I realized this immediately and put the bar back in the rack without taking it down any further. The second attempt went to my chest and was too heavy for me to get past the transition point. We tightened the shirt and I went out for the third attempt. I was still unable to make the lift. In hindsight, I should have insisted on changing to my tighter shirt.
The next day I did all the lift offs for the American team warm ups. I started with Dave Doan and finished with Bill Gillespie from Lynchburg Va. Bill’s opener was 282.5kg/621lbs. It looked really strong but at the last moment bringing it down he lifted his head off the bench. I don’t know what the next two attempts were red lighted for.
In ending this narrative, I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and am very honored to have been a part of the 2008 USAPL Masters Bench Press team.
