Team USA arrived in Vejle (pronounced Vie-ler) with high expectations for the 34th IPF Men's Open championships. 2003 has been a spectacular year for USA Powerlifting within the IPF. The Master's teams continue to dominate in their respective divisions and the Junior and Women's teams had some of their best results in recent memory. Unfortunately, 2 costly bomb-outs and a few close calls resulted in a disappointing 4th place finish for the second straight year for the USA. Although it is very encouraging to see the overall talent of the men's team improving especially with the make up of the team consisting of a good mix of veterans and rookies, its 4th place finish makes it clear that there is still plenty of room for improvement before we can complete with the top teams in the IPF in this division.

The spacious Sport Center in Vejle was the venue for this competition. The warm-up room was bigger than most lifting venues I have seen and consisted of 8 full platforms. The Venue itself was a large hall with an enormous elevated stage and large projected scoreboard that updated the standings after each attempt. It was obvious the meet director went through great expense to put on this production and deserves a lot of credit for a job well done. Eurosports and Danish Television were on hand to broadcast the final 2 days of the competition and provided some of the best coverage I have ever seen for a powerlifting contest with a split screen being used to provide angles from the front, top and side of the lifters.

The competition once again showed why this is the super bowl of powerlifting. You had incredible clutch lifting, great coaching and LOTS of drama. You can say what you want about the IPF but going to an IPF championships leaves no doubt about how great this sport can be from a competitive standpoint. It is an event that every fan of powerlifting should witness at least once in their lives. The judging seemed a little loose in the lighter weight classes but tightened up from the 148's on up. In fact, this was probably one of the least controversial IPF meets that I can remember from the standpoint of the officiating. In an international competition such as this, the biggest compliment you can pay the judges is to say that they had no effect on the results. Overall, this was the case in Vejle. Of the 1478 attempts during this competition, 962 (about 65% were good). This included about 61% of all squats, 64% of all bench presses and 71% of all deadlifts being successful.

One of the first things that always amaze me about the IPF is the depth of competition that it provides. Although this is to be expected in the middleweights, it is mind boggling to see it in the 114's. Back when Hideki Inaba was dominating this class, I guarantee you that he didn't have the caliber of opponents competing in this class these days. Even with this depth, Ervin Gainer appeared ready to compete for a medal in this tough class that was missing defending champion, Ravil Kazakov who moved up to the 123's for this competition. But, with Sergey Fedosienko ready to make his IPF open debut, this class actually became even tougher! Ervin looked very tentative with his opening squat and grinded it up for a good 2-1 decision. Taking a 10kg jump on his second, he again descending very tentatively and couldn't stand with it. After getting a little encouragement and coaching before his third attempt, he repeated his second attempt with authority and made it with room to spare. The real story in the squats in this class was Andrzej Stanaszek of Poland. Initially putting in for a world record opening attempt of 662lbs, Andrzej lowered it to 639 after he appeared to struggle with his last warm up. Stanaszek also appeared to be fully embracing the use of equipment as he was wearing a squat suit that was tailored to fit him quite tightly. His opener looked very easy but it also looked fairly high but was passed by 2 judges for a good lift. Jumping to the WR, 662 on his second attempt, which is 6.01 times his bodyweight, he went down to the same depth but had this attempt turned down. Repeating it for his third, he buried it and left no doubt that he is the greatest squatter ever in this class. Fedosienko went a perfect 3/3 finishing with 551lbs. It's hard to believe that a 551 squat in this class would still put you 110lbs behind the leader.

Ervin had quite a bit of difficulties with the bench press at nationals and needed his last attempt to stay in the meet. Unfortunately, these troubles followed him to Vejle as he could never quite figure out his bench shirt to make any successful attempts. After having trouble touching the bar on his first 2 attempts, his shirt was adjusted on his last attempt, which allowed the bar to touch fairly easily. However, at this point, Ervin's lack of confidence in this lift was clearly evident as he pushed the bar up too tentatively and had it stall 2/3rds of the way up. Having seen Ervin bench at nationals and this meet, it is clear to me that all of his problems with this lift do not lie in the area of strength, but in execution. Once he regains his confidence with his bench, he will again be in medal contention in the IPF. Fedosieko continued where he left off in the squat with 3 picture perfect bench presses finishing with a 3rd attempt of 358lbs. This impressive lift would be dwarfed by the bench press clinic put on by Stanaszek as he easily blasted up a new world record of 402lbs on his 3rd attempt. Stanaszek was using a bench shirt for the first time in IPF competition and he proved to be a quick study with it as he appeared to have another 15-20lbs left after this lift.

Now, sitting at the subtotal with a world record in the squat and bench press, you would think that all that is needed is a token deadlift and the gold medal is all wrapped up. That may have certainly been true 10 - 15 years ago in the IPF but it's definitely no longer the case. Opening and making a deadlift pr of 308lbs for a new total world record, Stanaszek could do nothing but sit back and watch as Fedosienko blew him out of the water with 3 powerful deadlifts for the gold medal and a new total world record of 1430lbs! That is 132lbs MORE than last years winning total. What is impressive about Fedosienko is that he appears to be perfectly proportioned for this class. Standing at about 4'8", he has excellent body density and almost perfect leverages to be a balanced lifter in the 114's. Former gold medallist, Chun Hsiung Hu of Chinese Taipei took the bronze with 1276lbs.

With the absence of Doc Holloway, the US didn't have an entry in this class but that didn't make the 123's any less exciting to watch. This class has been dominated by Konstantine Pavlov of Russia who has one 8 of the previous 9 gold medals in the 123's having only been beaten by Hu of Chinese Taipei in 97. When put into proper context of longevity, consistency and depth of competition, Pavlov needs to be considered in any discussion on greatest powerlifters of all time. Pavlov is also one of the most personable lifters you'll ever meet and is very good friends with many members of the US team. It was interesting to see that the Russians placed last years 114lbs champion Kazakov in this class with him. Typically, when the Russian team doubles up in a class by placing a younger lifter with a veteran, it is usually a sign that the veteran is on their way out from open competition. However, Pavlov showed that he is not ready for retirement yet as he displayed his usual consistency in winning this class even though he did not appear to be lifting with the same intensity that he is known for and really capitalized on some mistakes by Kazakov in the bench press in order to earn the victory. With Kazakov taking a 33lbs lead on Pavlov in the squat, Kazakov was only able to get his opener passed in the bench press, which allowed Pavlov to close the lead to 11lbs going into the deadlift. This put Pavlov in a position to pull for the gold medal, which he won with a 1436lbs total over Kazakov's 1420lbs. 51 year old Hiro Isagawa made up for bombing out last year in Slovakia by winning the bronze medal along with breaking his own world record in the bench press with a 413lbs 3rd attempt.

With Ervin's disappointing start to the competition, team USA was looking to regain some momentum. Fortunately, Hennis Washington was ready to take the platform as action began in the 132's. Hennis is one of the most technically flawless lifters I have ever seen and his mild, quiet demeanor reminds quite a bit of Gene Bell. Accompanied by his VERY pregnant wife, Hennis had his work cut out for him in this class, which resulted in 6 lifters totaling over 1320lbs. Hennis looked very solid in the squat and bench press going 4/6 and sitting in 3rd place at the subtotal. Unfortunately, at this point it was clear that nothing short of a complete implosion by defending champion Mikhail Andryukhin would keep him from the gold medal as a 583lbs squat and 352lbs bench had him well ahead at this point. Taking an opener of 528lbs, Andryukhin locked up the gold medal but seemed to miss his groove on his second attempt with 572 and had it turned down. Showing great confidence, which was no doubt aided by the luxury of knowing the gold medal was already belonged to you, he bumped the bar up to 606lbs for his third attempt and made it with room to spare. This gave him a 1540lb total. With Slawomir Sledz of Poland holding a 7.5kg lead over him for second and with Tsung-Ting Hsieh of Chinese Taipei only 2.5kgs behind, Hennis needed to pull big to stay in medal contention. Taking his opening deadlift at 484lbs, Hennis set up with his picture perfect sumo style and made it with easy. This lift moved him ahead of Slawomir but Hsieh had passed both of them with a big opener of 528lbs to move into second. Moving to 506lbs for his second attempt, Hennis appeared to pull a hamstring or a groin as he began the lift and dropped the bar before it got past his shins. Seizing the opportunity, Slawomir went to 468lbs to move 5lbs ahead of Hennis for 3rd place. After second deadlift attempts, it was clear that Hsieh would be untouchable for the second place but a bronze medal was possible. Repeating with 506lbs for his last attempt, Hennis came out and set up conventional style for the bronze medal attempt. Breaking the bar off the floor fairly fast, it began to greatly slow down as it reach mid thighs. With the entire American contingent cheering him on, Hennis continued to grind the bar up to lockout and received 3 white lights and the bronze medal. The effects of this clutch performance on the US team were immense as everyone seemed to be much more relaxed and confident after this.

The 132's weren't without a bit of drama revolving around Darimin Sutrismo of Indonesian. Sustrismo, took his second attempt squat with 617lbs and had problems standing with it. Repeating on his third attempt, he buried it and stood up for white lights. Once this lift occurred, Russian Coach Vladimir Bogatchev came running out to the jury claiming that Sutrismo was using an illegal pair of knee wraps. Before Sutrismo could walk away from the stage, the judges inspected his wraps and found them to be an illegal pair of Marathon wraps. Sutrismo was then automatically eliminated from the competition. Although, Bogatchev made the correct call in this matter, he appeared to loose his cool and the judges and jury had to stop their deliberations several times to warn him to settle down. Unfortunately, for him this display caused the IPF to suspend him from participation in the rest of the competition after this event. A formal appeal by the Russian federation got him reinstated the next day but with a stern warning that another out burst such as this would not be tolerated.

Who would have thought a few years ago that Kazakhstan's Alexei Sivokon dominance in the 148's would be so quickly matched and even exceeded. But, that is exactly what is occurring with the meteoric rise of Jaroslaw Olech of Poland. Breaking his own world record in the squat with a third attempt 732lbs, Olech was perfect in this competition until his last attempt deadlift of 700lbs that he couldn't quite lock out for yet another world record, which forced him to settle for a 688lbs second attempt…the best in this class by almost 50lbs. Adding a 385lbs bench press to these lifts gave him a mind boggling 1805lbs total and 639 Wilkes points which also gave him champion of champions honors. Chinese Taipei's Lung-Hsieg Huang used his deadlifting to pull himself into second place with a 1596lbs total past Sweden's Amit Sehlberg who won the bronze with 1540lbs.

IPF veteran and world record holder in the squat, Wade Hooper was coming into this competition with lots of confidence and momentum after a spectacular performance at Nationals this summer in south Dakota. Standing in his way for IPF gold were 3 exceptional competitors in Multi time world champion Viktor Furazhkin of Russia along with his teammate Viktor Baranov and junior Oleksandr Kutcher of Ukraine who looked more like Tony Succorotte than even Tony Succorrote does.

Toying with an opening squat of 677lbs, you could sense that Wade was going make history once again. His second attempt with 715lbs looked easier still so when he went out to break his own world record with a 743lbs third attempt, it was obvious that the only thing that would prevent white from being shown after the rack command would be malfunctioning judges lights. Wade set up confidently, went down smooth and deep and stood up again with ease…yet another world record. Keeping pace was Furazhkin who finished with a 715lbs squat followed by Baranov and Succo Jr. Hooper continued pouring it on in the bench press as he made 3 perfect lifts finishing with 462lbs, which was second best in this class after Furazhkin's 484lbs lift. This put Wade in first place at the subtotal but only 5.5lbs ahead of Furazhkin, and 94lbs ahead of Baranov and 100lbs ahead of lil' Succo. The deadlift has always been Wade's Achilles heel but he has made some great progress in this lift in the past year by finally breaking the 600lbs barrier that had eluded him for some time. He really appears to be gaining more and more confidence with this lift every time he competes. With such a slim lead over Furazhkin, going for gold would only be possible should Viktor run into troubles but a silver medal was realistic. Kutcher looked like he was running out of steam going into deadlifts as he couldn't pull his fits attempt past his knees. However, Furazhkin and Baranov both looked strong with their attempts. With Wade opening with 567lbs and then making 589lbs for his third, the gold medal was out of contention but a silver was still possible. However, Wade had his third attempt with 606lbs pop out of his hands and had to sit and wait to see how his opponents would do before knowing where he would finish. After barely making his opener with 667lbs, it looked like Kutcher didn't have another ounce left in him. When he went out for his third attempt with 688lbs to move him into second place, he came screaming onto the platform like he was wrestling in the WWE and tapped an inner well of energy that almost seemed unholy. Not only did he make his last attempt but he also made it look easy. Succomania has come back to the IPF, brotha! Baranov then went out and made 705lbs for his third attempt which moved him ahead of Kutcher for second and Wade was bumped down to 4th loosing out on the bronze on bodyweight. As disappointing as a 4th place finish was, it was very encouraging to see Wade quickly closing the gap in this class. After seeing Wade lift this year, there is no doubt in my mind that Hooper will once again be an IPF champion in the very near future. It is equally obvious that an 800lbs squat is in his immediate future as well.

USAPL newcomer Rich Salvagni of Indiana made his IPF debut in the 181lbs class. Lifting in nationals this summer had taught Rich many valuable lessons, which he put to good, use at his first world meet. Unfortunately, nothing could prepare him for the reality of lifting at IPF worlds as he seemed to be battling a good case of the nerves before he lifted and then came down with a cold afterwards. After cutting his opening squat a little high, Rich settled down nicely and made his last 2 attempts nice and deep. However, medalling in the total was a long shot in this deep class, which included junior Andrey Belyaev of Russia, Dmytro Solovyov of Ukraine, Jan Wegiera of Poland and Victor Naleykin's son, Sergiy or Ukraine. Rich did have a very good shot at a medal in the bench press especially since he had a world record attempt turned down 1-2 at nationals this summer. Opening in his best lift at 473lbs, it looked like he almost beat the start command and was awarded this lift by a 2-1 decision. He moved up to 506lbs for s second attempt, which would have put him within striking distance of Mike Bridges World record of 518lbs. However, it once again looked like he beat the start command and this time had his lift turned down even though he made it with ease. Since Rich isn't a big deadlifter and was looking at about a 10th place finish, I was surprised to see him repeat his second attempt rather than jump to the world record, which would at least place him in contention for a medal in the bench press. Unfortunately, Rich appeared to be focused too much on hearing the judge's commands rather than focusing on the lift and was unable to lock out. Although he only went 1/3 in his best lift, he made 2 strong deadlifts for a 1672lbs total, which put him into 12th place. As Brian Siders found out, the IPF platform is a very unforgiving place your first time on it. Like Brian, I am sure that Rich will come away from this experience as a much better lifter in the future.

Belyaev put on a clinic as he only missed his last squat on his way to an 8/9 performance good for a 1982lbs total for first place, which is a new junior world record. He was followed by Solovyov on the Ukraine with an 1909lbs total and Jan Wegiera of Poland with 1876lbs who broke Mike Bridge's bench press record on his opening attempt and went on to break it two more times finishing with 556lbs…that's 3.09 times his bodyweight! Coming into this meet, a lot of attention was on Sergiy Naleykin not only due to the fact that he had the highest nomination total but also that it appeared that his dad, Viktor, might lift also. However, Viktor withdrew a few weeks before the competition and instead coached Sergiy. However, all the coaching in the world couldn't help Sergiy on this day as he had an awful meet making only his openers, which all seemed to be at his max on this day. His potential is quite evident though as he was still able to finish in 4th place with an 1860lbs total.

The 198lbs class turned out to be a 2 man show with a classic battle between former champion Andrey Tarasenko on Russia and junior Ivan Freydun of Ukraine. Multi time US champion Ray Benemerito was coming into this meet as only the second American ever to be both and open and bench press national champion in the same year repeating Tony Succorotte's feat from last year. Ray was feeling confident before this meet but he just couldn't get the calls to go his way in order to medal in this competition. After making 2 strong squats, he went to 733lbs for his third and went to borderline depth with it. Clearly he would be at the mercy of judges and unfortunately he was turned down 2-1. The judging in this session was quite tight but very consistent as none of the top lifters got their 3rd squats passed. Going into the bench press. Taransenko was in the lead as to be expected but surprisingly, Freydun was only 5.5lbs behind. When benching began, it became clear that the Russian and Ukrainians would slug it out for gold and silver however, a bronze medal looked within reach for Ray, Ghirardi of Italy, Theuser of the Czech Republic, the second oldest competitor in the competition after Isagawa, Romanenko of Ukraine and Coimbra of Luxembourg. Freydun and Tarasenko took turns breaking the world record in the bench press with Tarasenko holding it last with a best lift of 573lbs. Benemerito once again came up short on a close call by the judges on his third attempt with 500lbs. Ray seemed to cut the pause a little shorter than the judges wanted and again had a lift turned down by a 2-1 decision. At this point, Ray was in 5th place at the subtotal and his 2 misses were looming very big. When deadlifts began, Theuser appeared to suffer quite a serious hamstring injury on his third attempt deadlift and had to be carried off the stage. After making 2 very strong deadlifts, Ray made a big jump to 733lbs for his third attempt to move into 3rd place. As the bar was moving very fast toward lockout, his right hand opened up and the bar popped out and slammed to the floor. This forced Ray to watch as Italy's Daniele Ghirardi pulled 782lbs on his third to move into 3rd. Ray had to settle for 6th. With one missed attempt, he dropped 3 places.

In one of the greatest most dramatic battles in IPF history, Freydun and Tarasenko went down to the last deadlift. Tarasenko was clinging to a slim lead and things were looking bleak for Freydun especially after he missed his second deadlift attempt with 754lbs. Needing 765lbs on his third for the win, Freydun grinded the lift up to completion and received the down command for white lights. Upon immediately beginning a huge celebration with the entire Ukrainian team, Russian coach Vladimir Bogatchev immediately stormed out to the platform and in a very animate manner began pointing at the bar. To everyone's shock, the bar had been misloaded to 743lbs! Since Freydun was the last lifter in this flight, the rules very clearly say that he is awarded a repeat of this attempt with 3 minutes rest in between. Apparently, Bogatchev didn't think this should be the case and he insisted that he be given only 1 minute between attempts. Upon arguing with the jury and refusing to leave the platform, another 2-3 minutes must have passed before the bar was loaded and 3 minutes were put on the clock for Freydun. As he came to the platform, the entire crowd was on its feet and I have never heard people cheering louder at a powerlifting meet. Freydun set his grip and pull the winning weight with authority for white lights and the gold medal. Seeing the gold medal slip away from him twice was apparently too much for Tarasenko to bear as he was seen in tears back in the warm-up room. As for Bogatchev, his display during this sequence of events was the straw that broke the camels back. He was not allowed to coach the Russian team for the remainder of the competition as coaching duties fell to Boris Sheiko and Sergey Ivanov.

The US had doubled up in the 220's with rising superstars Nick Tylutki and Charr Gahagan. Although both were new to this competition, they both had the luxury of having competed in the IPF as juniors and that experience was very evident as they both put together great performances. This class featured a very impressive performance by Oleksiy Vyshnytsky of Ukraine who is definitely built to deadlift. This was clearly evident as he was in 4th place at the subtotal but only needed his opening deadlift with 817lbs to pull into first place. It's hard to imagine Eddy Coan's IPF records being eclipsed anytime soon but his 859lbs deadlift was challenged as Vyshnytsky went to 860lbs for a third attempt. However, this record would still belong to Coan as Oleksiy could barely get the bar past his knees. Maxim Barkhatov took a 4th attempt at Tony Succorotte's bench press world record of 579lbs and with Tony Succorotte watching the lift, wasn't able to lock it out. Bracketing a 572lbs 3rd attempt bench press around a 782lbs squat and 776lbs deadlift, Barkhatov held on to win the silver medal with 2129lbs followed by Ivailo Christo of Bulagaria with 2122 who beat out Oleksiy Rokochyy of Ukraine on bodyweight for the bronze. Nick Tylutki was like a machine on the platform making all 3 squats very powerfully finishing with a pr 771lbs. He continued his perfect performance on the bench press also going 3/3 in that lift however, he was very conservative with his attempts as his benching appeared to be a little on the sluggish side. Getting back on track with his deadlifts, he made his first 2 attempts look very smooth but appeared to run out of gas on his third. This gave Nick a 1964lbs total and 5th place. Charr looked a little tentative with his squats, which was quite different from how he squatted at nationals. After making his first 2 attempts, he couldn't stand with his third with 705lbs. Showing improvement and more confidence with his worst lift, the bench press, Charr went up 5.5lbs to 462lbs on his third attempt after having his second turned down for uneven extension and made it. This put him in a nice position to move up with his deadlift, which he did making 776lbs on his second attempt, which was the 2nd best deadlift in this class.

With 25 lifters, the 242's were the biggest class of the competition. Tony Harris represented the US in this class after earning the right to do so with a gutsy performance at nationals where he battled through a quad injury to defeat Kevin Stewart with a 3rd attempt stiff legged deadlift for the national title. Who would have thought that history would repeat itself in Vejle. After looking very strong with a second attempt 743lbs squat, Tony took his third attempt with 787lbs deep into the whole and immediately dumped the bar behind him as he came out of the hole. After standing for a few seconds with one hand on the racks and the other clutching his right quad, he fell backwards onto the platform in obvious pain. He lay there for a few minutes as medical staff was brought out to attend to him. Seeing him carried off the stage by the US coaches was very sad to see as I personally felt sick to my stomach after seeing this. Like a true champion, Tony refused to quit and going against the advice of the medical staff he stayed in the competition. Limping onto the stage, he made 2/3 bench presses finishing with 500lbs on his second attempt. At this point he was around 10th place going into deadlifts. Not being able to use his quads for this lift, Tony needed to once again pull stiff legged. Making two token attempts, the coaches were setting up Tony for one big pull to move up in the standings. This resulted in a 749lbs 3rd attempt being called for and Tony once again limped out to the platform. Setting his grip, he once again had to pull stiff legged, which made the lift appear to take forever. Slowly the bar came off the floor and inched its way up to lock out. With one big pull, Tony had moved from 12th to 5th place. Heart, guts, balls anyway you want to describe this performance just wouldn't do it justice. It was one of the greatest sports feats I had ever witnessed.

Oleksiy Solovyov of Ukraine was da man in the 242's as he was in cruise control going a perfect 9/9 on his way to a new world record total with a 2217lbs for the gold medal. This included a new world record bench press of 617lbs. In a very interesting move, Russia's Yuriy Fedorenko moved up from the 220's to lift in this class and finished in second place with 2168lbs. This total would have beat Vyshnytskyy's winning total of 2157 in the 220's. Instead this move ended up being a 6-point swing against the Russians in their battle with Ukraine for the team championship. New Zealand's Derek Pomona was nursing a shoulder injury, which limited his bench for this competition but he was still able to win the bronze medal with 3 solid deadlifts giving him a 2086lbs total. In setting up for his third squat, Derek's left knee wrap came undone. Not one to let an attempt go to waste, Derek took 831lbs down quickly and appeared as though he would stand with it but the bar stalled about mid way up.

In the best 275 class ever seen in powerlifting history, a perfect 9/9 day and pr total for Tony Cardella were only good enough for 8th place. Tony was masterful in this class on his way to a 2151lbs total. At the 2000 worlds in Akita City, Japan, this total would have EASILY won the silver medal. This year, 2200 put up by Jorgen Ljungberg was only good enough for 6th place. That's right, 6 lifters went over 1000kgs in this class alone. In 1997, not a single lifter in the entire meet accomplished this. Along with nationals, Tony is 17/18 in championship competition in 2003. As remarkable as Tony is developing with his performance on the platform, it is equally as impressive to see him developing into a leader on the team as well. With many of the veterans like Gainer, Benemerito and Gillingham about to enter the masters ranks within the next few years, Tony's leadership and experience will be increasingly valuable to future men's team as newer talent begins to enter its ranks.

Ukraine's Vitaliy Papazov, who won the SHW class last year when Russia's Bonderenko failed a drug tested, moved down to the 275's to battle it out with last year's runner up Arvai Istvan of Hungary. Istvan lost to Russia's Andrey Malanichev last year when the winning 3rd attempt deadlift popped out of his hands. Istvan's 2003 meet got off to a shaky start as he cut his opening squat high twice and got it turned down both times. Showing that he would accept nothing short of winning the gold medal this year, he went up 22lbs on his third attempt to 857lbs, which he made deep and easy. This allowed him to keep pace with Papazov, who also looked shaking in squats barely standing with 881lbs on his second and getting buried with 913lbs on his third. Great Britain's Clive Henry also had some problems hitting depth as he cut 881lbs and 925lbs a little on his first 2 attempts before coming back to make 925 on his third and stay in the meet. Papazov added to his lead over Istvan with a nice 617lbs second attempt bench press to Arvai's 600lbs 3rd attempt to give him a 40lbs lead at the subtotal. Ove Lehto of Finland made 3 strong benches with a best effort 633lbs and took a shot at Scott Lade's 661lbs World Record on a 4th attempt, which he failed to lock out. Malanichev struggled in the bench press only going 1/3, which effectively eliminated him from contending with Papazov or Istvan for top honors. Papazov and Istvan were jockeying for position going into the last deadlift attempts with Papazov making his third with 815lbs, Istvan would need to pull 853lbs for the win. Istvan set up for this lift sans belt as usual and made one of the ugliest yet legal deadlifts I have ever seen. From the very start of the lift, he began twisting from side to side while grinding the bar up to lockout. Unlike last year, his grip did not fail him and he won the gold medal on bodyweight and posted a new world record total with 2311lbs. Malanichev held on to win the bronze as both Lehto and Ljungberg could not make their final attempts to pass him.

The finale in all powerlifting meets is always the SHW's and what a finale this would be. Team USA had its 2 biggest superstars in Brad Gillingham and Brain Siders both taking the platform continuing a tradition of American dominance of this class that dates back to Don Rienhodt. Unfortunately for Big Brad, this would not be his day. In what can only be described as a lapse of concentration for Brad and his coaches, nearly 40 minutes went by from his last warm-up until his opening squat. Due to previous knee injuries Brad sustained as a basketball player in college, Brad is always very careful to warm up and stretch out properly before lifting so timing his warm ups properly is much more important for Brad than most other lifters. This mistake seemed to really affect him as he cut his opening squat high with 831lbs and barely stood with it. Repeating the same weight for his second attempt, Brad took it deep but again barely stood with it. It was clear at this point that this would not be Brad's day as he barely even popped out of the hole with his 3rd attempt with 853lbs. Nursing a partial pec tear that he sustained while training for this contest, Brad was going to be conservative with his benching and opened at 562lbs. The judging for the Bench press for this flight was fairly tight but again very consistent. After getting his first 2 attempts turned down for technical infractions, Brad took his 3rd bench attempt with the same weight and made it easy but with a slight uneven extension that the judges turned down 2-1. What a truly disappointing finish to a very difficult year that saw Brad once again sustain a bicep tear and comeback to nationals and make the men's team. In spite of this setback, it was impressive to see how popular Brad is within the IPF as he had a continuous stream of fans and admirer's wanting to get his autograph and take his picture after the competition and at the banquet. Big Brad is far from done and I guarantee that he will be back in the IPF and on the medal stand where he belongs in the very near future.

The Big story of the meet was the crowning of 25-year-old Brian Siders as the newest US IPF world champion. Brian had emerged as a powerlifting superstar winning a junior national and 2 open national titles over the past 3 years. However, a world championship still eluded him after a disastrous meet last year in Slovakia where he went 4/9 finishing in 6th place. But what a difference a year makes. From seeing and talking to Brian before he lifted, it was very evident that his performance this year would be quite different. The nerves and uncertainty from a year ago were replaced by the confidence and experience of someone who now fully understood what it meant to lift at the world championships and more importantly what was needed to win. Opening with 848lbs in the squat, Brian took it deep and exploded out of the hole with so much force that it appear as though the bar literally lifted off his shoulders as he stood up. I have never seen an audience as large as that on hand to watch the SHW's gasp in complete astonishment after seeing this attempt. At this point, the only thing that needed to be determined is who would win the silver medal. After cutting his second attempt a little high with 892lbs, Brain came back and demolished in a similar fashion as his opener on his third attempt. Japan's Daisuke Midote made 915lbs and missed with 947 while Ukraine's Volodymyr Muravlyov made all 3 squats finishing with 870lbs as a very light SHW. Tibor Maszeros of Hungary put the fear of God into the spotters as he dive-bombed 881lbs twice but couldn't stand up. Brian distanced himself in the bench press as he made 3 very powerful benches with 651lbs, 677lbs and 699lbs. It appeared as though he had enough left to break James Henderson's 711lbs world record but he passed on a 4th attempt in order to save some energy for the deadlift. With Midote's biggest bench being 661lbs, the battle for first place was effectively over. Kenneth Sandvik on Finland had his problems getting his feet set for the bench press and bombed out with 693lbs. Nonetheless, it was impressive to see him un-rack the bar by himself for each of his attempts. Going into the deadlifts, Maszaros decided to go for the hail Mary play and opened with a world record 900lbs! He grinded it up but couldn't quite lock it out. This attempt seemed to completely drain him as he barely got his second attempt with the same weight off the floor and passed on his third. Brian was in cruise control at this point and made two easy deadlifts with 763lbs and 793lbs to give him the BIGGEST total in IPF championship history with 2383lbs eclipsing Lars Noren's total of 2372. Brian went for an 811lbs 3rd attempt for a 2400lbs total but was out of gas and hardly got it off the floor. Iceland's Benedikt Magnusson made 2 very entertaining attempts at the junior world record deadlift and local Favorite Niels Staerkjaer showed that he has some Wisconsin blood in him with a bench press that was bigger than his deadlift.

After this seeing Brian's performance, I thought of the line from Conan the Barbarian where he was asked what is best in life to which he replied, "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women!" With Brad and Brian around there are going to be a lot of countries avoiding the SHW's in the next few years. Since 1999, the USA has won 3 golds in the SHW's and has finished no worse than second. Next up for Brian is an assault on Bill Kazmeier's 1100kg (2425lbs) world record total.

Russia again came in first in the overall team standings with 69pts but it is also evident that the rest of the IPF is beginning to catch up to them. Ukraine was in second with 63 points with Poland in 3rd with 49, 5 points ahead of the USA.

The competition officially ended with the closing banquet where the best lifter and team awards are handed out. Interestingly enough, Russian coach Vladimir Bogatchev attended the banquet along with Fedosienko and Furazhkin who finished 2nd and 3rd for champion of champions but the rest of the Russian team was absent. After the awards were handed out, it was announced that Arvai Istvan and Brian Siders would be eligible to compete at the Arnold Classic Strongman competition this year due to their gold medal performances in the 275's and SHW's. Should Brian decide to go, lets hope that he has better luck at this competition than Brad has had.

A special thanks goes to Team USA's sponsors, Inzer Advanced Design, Titan Support systems and Quest Nutrition for all their support. A special thanks also goes to the large support staff and family and friends who traveled to Vejle with the team.