2003 Women's Worlds Chicago Wrap-up  By: Nectar Kirkiris IPF powerlifting returned to the United States for the first time since 1984 with the Women's World Championships, which were held at the Radisson, Lincolnwood, just north of Chicago on May 23-25. This venue has been the site of numerous USAPL national championships and its staff is no stranger to organizing large events such as this. This experience and competence was certainly put to the test in arranging the accommodations and transportation to/from the airport for this competition. The staff at the Radisson not only rose to the occasion but also went above and beyond what would normally be expected of them to make everyone's stay pleasant. I can honestly say that this event would not have been possible without their assistance and its success was directly related to the great relationship that has been developed between them and Dennis Brady over the years. The time and effort needed to organize an IPF meet makes nationals look like an unsanctioned push/pull contest in comparison. Aside from organizing the contest related aspects, you must also arrange hotel accommodations, transportation to/from the airports, help obtain visas for lifters, arrange a banquet and constantly having to deal with situations that automatically arise due to the large number of cultural differences present in such a large international group. Thankfully, we had Johnny Graham as a consultant, based on his experience with organizing Masters Bench Press Worlds last year, and Larry Maile, with his international experience with the IPF, helping us out in preparing for this competition. . More importantly Johnny and Lynette Lopez came up and helped out for the entire weekend. We would like to thank both of them for all their hard work and I hope that Johnny's experience with a few of the women hasn't traumatized him too badly. Overall, the event ran quite well. Each session started on time and took about 3 hours to complete. The awards ceremony immediately followed each session and the banquet was a great time for everyone. We learned some valuable lessons in putting on a meet like this in the US, which we will share with other American meet directors who are putting on IPF contests in the future. The cost structure for IPF contest is quite a bit greater than for USAPL nationals. Add to that the fact that too many foreign lifters and officials still expect to pay Eastern European prices in a Western country and you end in quite a difficult financial situation. The biggest surprise of the competition was the announcement of the resignation of General Secretary, Heiner Koeberich, at the banquet. On behalf of USA Powerlifting, I would like to wish him very good luck in all of his future endeavors. I am sure that he will remain active within the sport in some capacity. A great many people need to be thanked for coming to help make this meet such a success. In addition to Johnny Graham, Lynette Lopez (I still can't believe that she is a grandma), special thanks needs to go to Al Siegal, Joe and Kathy Marksteiner, Ruth Welding, Sue Hallen, Jack Marcus, Bill Loomos, the Lane Tech football team and many others who pitched in to help out. A special thanks must also go to our main sponsor, Inzer Advanced Designs and particularly, Peter Thorne. Peter's support behind the scenes was very instrumental in making this competition a success. He went above and beyond the call for what would be expected of a sponsor and I can't thank him enough for all he has done for us over the years. Please be sure to visit the Inzer website at: http://www.inzernet.com As always, Dennis Brady did a fantastic job of organizing a world-class competition. As was mentioned previously, the time and effort needed to pull off an IPF competition is enormous. USA Powerlifting was very fortunate to have one of the best meet directors in the USA in charge helping to ensure that everything ran smoothly. Dennis took a very big risk in organizing the first IPF powerlifting competition in over 18 years in the US and the information and knowledge we gained from this experience will be very valuable to other American IPF meet directors. A special thanks also needs to be given to Sandy Brady for taking on the challenging task of announcing for the entire competition as well as ensuring that the lifting order was correct coming from the official scorer. Before the competition even began there was the potential for some controversy with the Ukrainian, Russian, Peruvian and Ecuadorian delegations running into some problems obtaining visas to come to the US. Since the 9-11 attacks, the visa application process has been greatly tightened up. As a result, there is a 6-week lead-time now for processing visa applications and all applicants now also require interviews before being granted a visa. Furthermore, the US state department automatically places a red flag after all visa applications from all young, single women from those nations, which further complicated matters. Both Ukraine and Russia submitted their applications only 3-4 weeks before the contest and the majority of their teams fell into the red flag category. After, a great deal of effort and quite a few faxes and phone calls to the US embassies in those countries, the visas for the Russian and Ukrainian delegations were granted but, the applications from the lifters from Ecuador and Peru were denied. A special thanks goes out to Larry Maile for all of his work in helping out with this procedure. The before the lifting started for the first session, Sioux-z Hartwig, Priscilla Ribic, Jessica Watkins and Liz Willet joined FOX Broadcaster Bruce Wolf for a live broadcast on the FOX in the Morning news show in Chicago. After an opening teaser where Liz held Bruce in her arms, Sioux-z gave a small squat demonstration while Priscilla and Jessica clowned around with Bruce, who has quite a sense of humor. Later in the day, CBS news Chicago filmed some of the lifting, which was later shown during the sportscast. The lifting began with both Ashley Robbins and Ann Leveret taking the platform for the US in the 97lbs class. This was Ashley's first international competition while Ann is an IPF veteran during her long and successful IPF career. Ann had some trouble with her squats, which seems to be her main weakness in holding back her lifting, and only went 1/3 with that lift. Talking to her husband, Earl before the competition, I was informed that Ann has been having some Active Release Treatment done, which is greatly helping with her hip flexibility and improving her confidence with hitting depth. Once Ann fixes this problem, I expect her squats to really begin to take off. She was able to put aside this shaky start to finish the meet strong for a 720lbs total, which gave her 5th place. Ashley Robbins showed tremendous improvement in her lifting from women's nationals last January by increasing her total by over 71lbs at women's worlds. The battle for the gold was a very tough match, which came down to the last deadlifts. Svetlana Tesleva of Russia was unable to lockout her third attempt with 358lbs, which gave defending champion, Raija Koskinen of Finland another gold medal. Wei-ling Chen of Chinese Taipei made a 4th attempt world record with 385lbs and earned the bronze medal. Although I don't understand Russian, I witnessed Russian coach Vladimir Bogatchev giving Svetlana one of the most brutal tongue lashings I have ever witnessed based on body language and tone. One thing is definitely for certain, the Russians taking winning at the IPF VERY seriously. I'll be curious to see if we ever see Ms. Tesleva on any future Russian teams. The 105lbs class once again had Jenn Maile looking for her first open gold medal. This was quite a tough task as this class featured 3 other very tough competitors from Russia, Olesia Lafina, Japan, Yukako Fukushima, and Kuan-Ting Chen of Chinese Taipei. After easily making here opening squat with 330lbs, Jenn appeared to completely miss her groove on her last 2 attempts by sitting back too bar and failing to stand up with the weight. This cost here dearly in that it basically put her out of contention for the gold. Olesia provided one of the highlights of the contest by squatting 200kgs (440lbs) on her third attempt with some room to spare. Not only was this over 4 times her bodyweight but it also proved to be the best squat of the competition based on formula. For as short as she is, she is fairly well proportioned and she reminds me of a female mini-me version of Eddy Coan. Jenn was able to get on back track with her benches but had some trouble finishing her last 2 deadlifts. She has switched to a double underhand grip for deadlifts, which seemed to work great with her opener, which she literally gripped and ripped off the floor. She lost her grip on her second deadlift but was able to get the third try. Even with what would be considered an off day for her, she still managed a bronze in the squat, a bronze in the bench by virtue of lot numbers since she tied Kuan-ting on weight and bodyweight and the gold in the deadlift. This resulted in a solid 924lbs total which gave her the silver medal just 5.5lbs ahead of Yukako and 44lbs behind Lafina's 968lbs gold medal total, which was a new world record. No American women had won an open class IPF medal in powerlifting since 1997 when Carrie Boudreau did so in the 123lbs class along with winning the champion of champions award. Coming into this contest several of the American girls appeared to be in good striking distance of a gold medal but, it was IPF veteran 114lber Sioux-z Hartwig that put in a truly clutch performance to win the gold medal with her last deadlift over Stephani Cornette of France by 5.5lbs. Any sports analogy you want to use to describe her win and the atmosphere afterwards wouldn't do justice to describe how it felt to see her pulling that bar off the floor all the way to lockout for 3 white lights for the gold medal. More importantly, she proved that a drug free American women CAN win in the IPF. Sioux-z's lifting was her usual well-balanced, mistake free performance. She won the silver medal in the squat with 363lbs, gold in the bench press with 215lbs and silver in the deadlift with 372lbs for a gold medal-winning total of 946lbs. 1st through 4th place was only separated by 33lbs with Stepani Cornette of France winning the silver, Mervi Rantamaki of Finland winning the bronze and Mervi "Powerlifter Barbie" Sirkia finishing forth. In addition to her spectacular performance on the platform, Sioux-z put on an equally great performance on the dance floor at the banquet as she also proved that she has some of the best dance moves in powerlifting as well. With Michelle Amsden declining her spot on the team due to work commitments, there was no Amercian lifter in the 123lbs class. Regardless, the only real question in this class would be who would finish in second because Inna Filimonova of Russia put on a powerlifting clinic and won the gold medal by more than 165lbs over silver medallist, Birgit Fischer of Germany. Now, this would be an incredible margin of victory for the men's SHW class where the winning totals are well over 2200lbs but, for the women's 123lbs class where an elite total is around 900lbs, this margin is beyond comprehension! Inna's 1156 total was nearly 17% better than the next best total in this class and would have won her 2nd place at men's nationals last year only 55lbs out of first. To put that in perspective, imagine winning the 100m sprints in the Olympics by more than 1.5 seconds or the New York City marathon by almost 20 minutes. She accomplished this total by means of an easy world record squat of 490lbs, a 237lbs bench and a 429lbs deadlift. What made here lifting more impressive still is that she looks like a cheerleader and was definitely the counter point to the argument that the Russian girls aren't feminine. There was a very tight battle for third place as Yi-Ju Chou of Chinese Taipei beat Mayumi Kume of Japan on bodyweight for the bronze. Masters lifter and US veteran Bettina Altizer got things going for the US in the 132's. Bettina is incredibly focused and intense on the platform and she put that all together for a spectacular performance in this brutal class. Only 77lbs separated 2nd through 8th place. A single missed attempt could easily cost you several places when the field is that tight. To place in medal contention in situations like this requires a near flawless performance and that is exactly what Bettina delivered. She made a very deeeeeep and powerful 3rd squat of 441lbs for a new masters world record, which was good enough for a bronze in that lift. She followed that with an equally powerful 296lbs bench, which was also a new masters world record and the second best bench of the class. Then for the deadlifts, things started to get interesting. Valenti Nelyubova of Russia was well ahead at the split and in cruise control for the gold, which she won with a 1331lbs total (506, 352, 473). The only point of controversy that I would like to bring up is the fact that her 352 bench, which was good for a new world record, clearly appeared to be a touch and go lift from my point of view. Bettina is not known as a particularly strong deadlifter, which tends to be a big disadvantage in these meets. This allowed Valid Iskandarova of Kazahkstan to pull a huge 451 deadlift to pass Bettina for the silver. Bettina made a very strong 374lbs dl on her second, which kept her in third and in contention for the silver. However, her third attempt with 385 to pass Iskandarova was just too much for her. This put her in the nerve racking position of having to watch Ayako Ikeya of Japan attempt a 441lbs third deadlift for third place, which she got to mid thigh before it stopped and she had to drop the bar to the floor. Bettina had weathered the storm and held on to win the bronze overall with a 1165lbs total, which was also another master world record…what a performance! The 148lbs class gave Priscilla Ribic the opportunity to show the world that she is the real deal and that all of that raw power that she possesses can translate into a huge total. Priscilla had been putting up some impressive numbers in training, which seemed to really boost her confidence considerably since she was no where near the nervous wreck that she usually is before a big meet. What made her performance on this day even more impressive was the fact that she was suffering from a severe migraine headache the night before she was to lift, which kept her awake until about 4:00am (she had to weigh in at 8:30). But, not even a loud rumbling freight train going through her room could have deterred her from the performance she put together on this day. The 148's where really the showcase for 3 girls who were head and shoulders (fairly broad ones too) above everyone else. In addition to Priscilla, defending Champion Marina Kudinova of Russia and Lesya Guminska of Ukraine were all ready to fight it out for the medals. This class also showcased the fantastic job the spotters did throughout the entire competition, as Jena Mackey of the Bahamas must have thought that Dennis Brady's arms were the racks as she just simply walked out from under the bar after failing to stand up with her second squat. Priscilla looked a little tentative on her first 2 squat attempts but, came out much more aggressive with her third of 486lbs and stood up with it like it was an warm up. This was good for a new American record. She clearly had another 25-30lbs in her but you don't place in the IPF with just a big squat and I feel the coaches made a good call to put in an attempt that she could make with authority. She was only 22lbs out of first after squats and she made another American record in the bench press with 286lbs. She got her third bench of 303 turned down because 2 of the officials claimed that it did not touch her chest. Although I thought this wasn't a bad call, it was also very obvious to me that quite a few other lifters could have been called for this infraction as well during this session but were not. This proved to be a very costly mistake for Priscilla. Kudinova of Russia came out and did a WR 352lbs bench, which is what ultimately solidified the gold medal for her. At the split, Priscilla was tied with Guminska of Ukraine with a 771lbs subtotal but Priscilla was the heavier lifter. Both of them were about 66lbs ahead of 4th place competitor Marian Gibson of Great Britain. Priscilla had her problems with the deadlift at women's nationals in Killeen as she rolled her ankle on one attempt and needed her last deadlift just to stay in the meet and post a total. Showing that this performance had long been forgotten, she put together 2 very solid deadlifts, which lead to a successful attempt with 473. Then attempting to move into second place, the bar was loaded to 501, which was just a bit too much for her on this day. Priscilla ended up with the bronze in the squat, silver in the bench press and bronze in the total only 5.5lbs out of second. Kudinova cruised through dealifts and finished up with 1331lbs total for the gold. The 165's had junior lifter Kim Everett making here debut on the women's open team and what a debut it was. She went 3/3 in the squats finishing with a very powerful 413lbs on her third, which was 6th best among the 12 165'ers. She continued on with lifts of 204lbs in the bench press and 413lbs in the deadlift for a 1029lbs total, which put her into 8th place overall. Kim has a lot of potential and as a member of the Louisiana Tech Powerlifting team, she has quite a bit of support around her in order to tap into that potential and become a medal contender in this competition in a few years. Svetlana Dedulya dominated this class…again. Seeing this girl in person kept popping the old hit by the Commodores, "Brick house" into my head. Svetlana is built to powerlift and put the performance behind her appearance with world records in the squat, 561lbs, and bench press, 386lbs. Both of these lifts were incredibly easy and I am certain she will break them again in her next competition. Although she was only successful with her opening deadlift of 490lbs, she was still over 170lbs ahead of second place competitor Tamara Bahrily of Ukraine with a total of 1447lbs to 1276lbs. In third place was Petra Stehlikova of the Czech Republic who left quite an impression with Johnny Graham. The 181's were yet another tight class with only 44lbs separating 2nd through 4th place. Jessica Watkins brought half the state of Indiana to watch her lift and she did not disappoint. After getting a very strong 3rd squat with 518lbs which was the second highest of the class, she was able to make a 264lbs bench which gave her a subtotal of 782lbs. This had her in 5th place but only 15lbs out of third. As the old saying goes, the meet doesn't start until the bar hits the floor. This was definitely the case in this class. A simple way of thinking of IPF competition is to imagine that the squats and benches as just being there to give you the opportunity of winning a medal with the deadlift. Only a few lifters in our sport, such as Lee Moran and Andrzej Stanaszek, have been fortunate enough to win IPF gold without having to worry about deadlifting big. Jessica once again proved this strategy correct as she stormed out and made a very strong 490lbs deadlift on her second attempt for a 1271lbs total. This vaulted her past Ilja Strik of the Netherlands, who has the biggest calves I have ever seen on a woman, and into third place by virtue of being lighter than Kateryna Boroday of Ukraine. Once again, the Russian lifter, Tatyana Puzanova won fairly easily with a 1356lbs total but not without some drama. Puzanova was having problems setting up for her deadlifts. It seemed as though the extra markings on the Ivanko bars were making her set up too wide which prevented her from budging the bar off the floor. She was able to fix this problem and easily make her opener on her last attempt to stay in the meet and win the gold. I'd hate to think what would have happened to her if she bombed out. Also of note in this class were the bench attempts (or lack thereof) of Chinese Taipei lifter Min-Chu Hung. Min-Chu opened with 352lbs. Every time I took the bar from the racks and lowered it to her, it felt as though I was not only supporting all of the weight but also trying to balance it on the head of a needle. There was absolutely no support for that much weight to be held at lockout for the start command. There has been quite a bit of discussion in recent years to remove the tricks and gimmicks used by some when benching in order to restore this lift back to a display of upper body strength that it is supposed to be. It is performances like this that make me realize that something needs to be done. After this session, an official suggested that perhaps everyone should have to unrack his or her own bar when benching. With the use of adjustable benches this would be possible and would bring this lift more inline with the philosophy behind the squat. Clearly, something must be done, in my opinion. On the bright side, several people at the contest told me that I show good potential for the static car hold, which is often used in strongman contests. I also must say that the judging during the squats was generally quite generous during this session. This proved quite perplexing to me since one of the side judges during this session also judged the following day and hardly seemed to give any white lights at all during that session. The last day of the competition began with the 198lbs class. As I mentioned previously, the squat judging during this session was brutal. I have never witness so many red lights for depth from the front judge in any contest before. Of the 16 lifters in this session 4 bombed in the squats and several others only got their openers. Master's deadlift record holder Linda Schaeffer lifted in her first open class IPF world championship and was only able to get her opening squat. She then got back on track with 3 strong benches the last 2 of which were prs. However, the pace of the meet seemed to affect her, as she was only able to make her opening deadlift, which is always her strongest lift. Irina Lugovaya dominated for Russia and won the gold with a 1463lbs total by way of a 551squat, 363 bench and 551 deadlift. Winning the silver was Iryna Yavorska of Ukraine with a 1337lbs total and in third was Brenda Vandermeulen of The Netherlands with a 1150 total. The UNL class had the makings of some truly historic performance. 3 girls from this class entered this competition with the potential to squat over 600 and bench over 400. However, the judging during the squats quickly eliminated this possibility. Normally in doing a write-up for an international competition, a good dose of diplomacy is required in providing any criticism of the judging. But, in this case I'm going to put diplomatic etiquette aside and emphatically state that LIZ WILLET WAS ABSOLUTELY SCREWED BY THE JUDGING FOR HER LAST SQUAT! From where I was standing, which was just over the left shoulder of the right side judge, her third squat was at least 2 inches deep and incredibly powerful. How side judge I was sitting behind and the head judge could give her red lights is beyond me. Everyone in the audience was stunned with that verdict. This was a horrendous way to finish such a successful competition for the US team. Liz had just switched to using a tight squat suit, which affected her quite a bit on her first 2 attempts. However, she completely figured the suit out on her third and got that lift with plenty of room to spare. Liz deserved so much better on this day. Also struggling with her squat depth was Galina Karpova of Russia who also only managed to go 1/3 having to repeat her opener of 594lbs to get into the meet. With Liz out of the contest and Karpova having an off day, the door was wide open for Chen-Yeh Chao of Chinese Taipei. Chao made 3 very powerful and deep squats finishing with 600 and then went on to bench 418. This put her well in command for the gold medal with a 512lbs deadlift for a world record total of 1530. Russia once again dominated the team scoring by winning 7 golds, 2 silvers and a bronze for a perfect 72 points (only top 6 scores are used in IPF scoring). The USA came in a solid second with 52points for second place, which was the highest finish for the US in the competition since 1996! In looking at the team standing for the women since 1997, the US team has showed some impressive improvement. In 1997 they finished in 6th place. Since that time, they have moved themselves to the top of the second tier teams above such impressive programs as those of Ukraine, Kazahkstan, Finland, Chinese Taipei, Japan, France and Germany. In third place was Ukraine with 48 points followed by Chinese Taipei and Finland. The top 3 best lifters of the competition were a clean sweep for Russia with Svelana Dedyulay, Marina Kudinova and Inna Filiminova taking the honors. As with all world meets, this event came to a close with the awards banquet. After some difficulty getting everyone seated and settled, a few short speeches were made which emphasized the points that we must always strive to put aside personal grievances and preferences for the long term and nobler goals of what is best for the sport. In helping to organize this competition, all of the US girls kept telling me how important it was to be able to dance after the banquet. So, I went out and hired a DJ and man, was that ever money well spent! I've done my fair share of clubbing in my life but this was one of the best and wildest dance parties I have ever been to. For those of you not there, you really missed out on a great time. For those of you there, always remember what happened in Chicago stays in Chicago. I would like to close out by thanking everyone who stopped by to help out or support the girls. Chicago proved to be very popular with all the competitors as many of them did quite a bit of site seeing throughout the week. Next years Women's Worlds will be in Cahors, France, which is a few hours north east of Toulouse in South Western France. Although our women's program is still a few years away from being able to beat the Russians we are making great gains on them each year and they should be well position to continue on this path next year in France. Till then, stay strong!

Contest Photos

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Results Legend
Open: Can be any age.               Junior: up to 23 (Dec 31)
M1: Master 40-44                    T1: Teen 14-15
M2: Master 45-49                    T2: Teen 16-17
M3: Master 50-54                    T3: Teen 18-19
M4: Master 55-59                    Teen: 14-19 (exact age unknown)
M5: Master 60-64                    Collegiate: Age unknown
M6: Master 65-69                    SM: Submaster 35-39
M7: Master 70+                      
Master: 40+ (exact age unknown)

Junior Varsity: Age unknown (entered as Teen on Database)
Varsity: Age unknown (entered as Collegiate on Database)