6 Pack Lapadat and Matt Gary join the Future of Powerlifting podcast in a joint episode with King of the Lifts to discuss the results of Powerlifting America Nationals, Team USA at IPF Worlds this upcoming June, as well as highlights for the European Championships and Arnold UK.
Six-pack lapid at we got Adriana Davis who’s a podcaster SL commentator SL scouting expert slash I mean you did so post you know social media influencer you did a lot this weekend um did a lot this weekend Matt Gary of course Game Day goat Team USA head coach so you got
To see your team get built in front of your very eyes Sir and we could get some of your feedback back on how you feel about your team maybe how this team Stacks up against previous years and your expectations of of this team and and obviously we can go through this
Division to by division just like we did the preview show and once we say what happened we’ll say what that person can expect at Worlds and maybe we could it gives us a little something something to talk about a little meat on the bone and Matt is going to be leading these people
Into battle so we we had some and then also just like the previous show we’ll touch up on the highlights of Euros in Arnold Classic UK because this is the March Madness recap episode so there it is I’m GNA pull up my results page and um let’s kick it off I legit finished
Off the waser Carpio podcast just moments ago and uh I’m crushing your boys grinding I did five podcast this weekend I’mma do I’mma do five more of the weekend coming up because that’s how we do it but um waser hell of a story there we all knew he’s on a quest to
Popularize the 59s much like Penna did the 66s he’s got a lot of interesting points like that in terms of you know he’s charismatic jacked and ripped like Penna can do a good podcast like Penna tells a good story like Penna drops sound bites the whole nine when this podcast drops
With boser you’re going to want to check it out cuz he dropped pot he dropped sound bites including shots at fetto um but I’ll let everybody take a take a listen because there’s a potential Showdown there but with the story with was last worlds he needed 636.3 to go to
Sheffield and he wanted to go to Sheffield he’s got a phenomenal background story told on King of the lifts and they would have had the road to Sheffield the whole nine and at the very last deadlift it came out of his hands at the World Championships it was
Bittersweet he became a world champion missed his opportunity to go to the to Sheffield and take the 59s to Sheffield and tell his story and hype that division up but here we are back at powerlifting American Nationals and he lays those demons to rest um hits a 638 kilo
Total and while he was on the podcast he was saying I mean the the rumors are and not official fedenko and some of the Russians will be back not under the Russian flag but under some other flag and we’ve seen this happen before and if fed’s
Back wasar is ex convinced he’s going to be the one that head hand feto his first loss in the 59 kilo class and the reign of terror officially and he said if you look at the numbers fed’s total is going up or going down mine is going up I’m 10
To 15 years younger and he’s going to finally get served so that is what waser is proclaiming he said you open open powerlifting all you see is a sea of ones by his name because he’s first place he’s gonna get his first two how did you guys feel about his
Performance it was um Adriana did you did you commentate this one with me I think you did yeah we saw we saw the moment at the end that um the floating camera caught so beautifully where he hit that last deadlift and it was super hard like it
Wasn’t easy and he hit it and he just got so emotional and he ran gave his family some thanks give them some hugs and I was like like we were commentating I was like I’m getting te eyed like this it’s a big deal like he’s of course this
Me didn’t qualify him for Sheffield but like he could have came in and hit like 580 or something and still got the world’s team spot but it wasn’t about just getting the spot it was about getting revenge on that number and he did like despite having a big cut as we
All know um despite having like really hard third deadlift and it was a good moment it was a good way to start off the meet for sure yeah we we talked about what it would mean him coming into this competition everyone know it the number he needed to qualify for Sheffield
Knowing he missed it at Worlds with the last deadlift and if he came into this competition and dodged that number everyone would know he was dodging it so he would going to Worlds knowing I missed this last time had an opportunity again and I I dodged and everyone knows
I ducked it or I missed it at Worlds came into paats had an opportunity to take another swing at that number and I missed again now going into Worlds the Sea of doubt in the back of the head would be phenomenal that’s why coming into this a
Wasker isn’t built a Dodge he’s going to load it up to prove a point to prove to himself so when he goes to Lithuania and number two that’s why we saw the emotion we saw from him that’s why because he knows I miss this twice in a row when I
Go to Lithuania and I’m looking at Matt Gary and they’re like look we we know where we’re going with this son and I missed twice in a row it it starts building on you it’s like Gavin Aiden with that third squat for a while it it starts becoming a storyline in the wrong
Direction and the pressure and everything that’s why you saw it’s almost relief even though you’re right Adrian this doesn’t technically qualify for Sheffield it’s the totally needs to qualify him and what it means mentally to to slay that demon and be like I can do this I could do this it wouldn’t have
Been neutral if he missed oh well it doesn’t matter you only have to do it in Lithuania no but you can’t keep swinging at something and missing and not have that build on you that’s not he wouldn’t be human uh so he let the tears flow and
He’s like oh my God I did it I could do it I could do this now and once for a lot of lifters if you have that mental barrier that Milestone you’re trying to hit we all this is something we could all agree with uh you know if it’s that
First whatever round number 300 400 500 once you do it once you’re like I could do this now now it’s in your head now we’re good we’re good and that was key for him moving into Worlds because if fedosenko does show up he knows he’s good enough to hit that Carpino or
Carpino sorry uh the Sheffield qualifying total and he could steer focus on on fedo with confidence and and tell himself look at my top end Matt I want to throw it to you though with what you saw and the possible return of fedo as a 59
How do you feel about you and your team in the 59 kilo class very confident um I love wascar my wife Susie and I had the had the honor of of being in his corner on game day at PA Nets and uh this was a surgical performance nine
For nine was able to check all those boxes as you said Ryan if there was this proverbial monkey on his back if if you will he he got it off of his back he checked a box not only did as you said did he prove to himself yes I am capable
Of this number you know because he barely missed it in Malta but he proved to the rest of the world hey I’m good enough I can do this I’m strong enough I I’m supposed to to be here I’m supposed to be at you know Sheffield and and I’m
Qualified and capable so I love his Moxy I love his attitude um there’s no quitting this guy he’s supremely confident uh he executes at an extraordinarily high level it is like wascar to make a lot of lifts we were projecting slightly higher uh you know our game plan but you know as evidenced
And and as spoken about he had a significant cut had to come down quite a ways and and that’s been well documented and so I think um you know we took what was there but honestly I think Susie and I and wascar would probably admit we
Squeezed just about as much juice out of that lemon on that particular day as possible and and it netted us the number that you know that he wanted to prove not only to himself but to everybody else that he was capable of hitting in 638 so yeah um it it is a milestone
Number for him uh there’s more meat on the bone I know that this will serve as a springboard for him and a momentum Builder going into Worlds and look hey if if fed Doo does come back then it’s game on it’s like look you know he’s not
Ducking anybody uh we all know who fedosenko is what he brings uh you know the type of uh consistency that he brings and so wascar is gonna have his hands full but it but we we’d be remiss if we didn’t say fedosenko is gonna have
His hands full as well so yeah I’m glad to have wascar on the team we’re thrilled to have him he’s a team player and just uh excited to take him as our 59 representative into Lithuania I was joking around with waser about how when he checked in in December with marcelus
Who’s his nutrition coach he hops on that Zoom call wearing a hoodie trying to trying to hide that he’s like 70 kilo and marcelos would be like damn man you look like DJ Khaled what happened to you like he was so much heavier than he was
Supposed to be um but if he can hit that number with the deficit of calories he was on right and the cardio he was doing and the the whole situation was not built for a PR performance and he hit one anyways so he he was tested going
Into Worlds he should be much much much better and he’s going to need to be I hope fed’s there we’re going to see our first showdown in the 59s in the entire time that we had the 59 kilo class in the Raw division we haven’t had a showdown it’s been all oneway
Traffic fetto comes back we got ourselves a good old a good old fashion Showdown let’s let’s see how it ends up I think um yeah I’ll leave it there I won’t get too biased but but moving into the 66 how stacked are the 66s when Daniel Clement and Brian Lee
Both drop out and it’s still the best division it’s still super stacked it’s still Brian Clemens and uh or sorry Daniel Clement and Brian Lee drop out and it still comes down to the very last deadlift and the winner breaks the world record unofficially that’s how stacked it is that’s how
Stacked it is doesn’t lose anything it it’s it was a phenomenal showing Jonathan Garcia had him on the podcast as well and finally putting it all together and he said he had more in the deadlift more in the tank he had a deadlift that he hasn’t shown everybody else he showed
Everybody all of his lifts ex seph’s final de and um so he says unconventionally usually you pull mix [Â __Â ] or you pull hook grip my man’s pulling mixed hook grip interesting yeah to say the least that’s interesting however he’s got super duper small hands and they’re meaty so it’s just not built
To deadlift he’s built the lift obviously uh phenomenal lifter but he’s the deadlift is very difficult for him if it works it’s working his deadlifts on the commentary um I’ve replayed I re-watched some of this to refresh my memory even though it’s only been a week
But a lot can happen in a week he his Li his deadlifts got more and more convincing remember ad when we were commentating it was like oh cuz the story on him the deadlift start coming out of his hands strong as hell in terms of the core the tors his body but it’s
Just at the hands the weak point and after the first one we’re kind of like see what happens like we’ve seen this okay he gets his total he doesn’t bomb he’s good but how heavy can he go before it starts coming out of his hands my man
Hit his last deadlift like maybe the most convincing of all all of them it was it was nuts and he said on the podcast I have more in me we did what we thought we need to do to win but if you seen my top end deadlift in training you
Would know what I’m talking about now Matt is going to be privy to this leading into world you’re going to see all this because obviously you’ll be handling but I’m interested if he’s got more than 77.5 and my man is into the 720s are we talking about
Is he the favorite to win Worlds now based off of what you saw I I’ll throw it to you first this time Matt and then we’ll go to Adriana what was your impression of his performance and then what are you thinking about his world’s potential his performance was
Outstanding as you said uh he was he was able to put it all together he made nine lifts you know kind of under the the guidance and tutelage there of Aran kessi who’s you know one of the best game day coaches in the world and so it
Was good that Aran was there in his corner because that division was stacked at Nationals uh that that could have gone a lot of different ways and if I’m not mistaken you two you you two were commentating his third squat was two to one no good right and then it was turned
Over right so again and this is you know we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that you know this could potentially have turned out differently had his third squat not counted because that was a 13 kilo jump that he made from his second Squad at 265 to the to the uh you know
The American record and of course unofficial world record at 278 on the third one so had he missed that and not had those 13 kilos then you’re looking at Charlie Yang potentially being able to pull significantly less now would the other lifters have played their attempts differently we always say that of course
Right so we’re not saying that it would have unfolded you know in a different way it just would have had the potential to unfold in a much different way but Jonathan executed extraordinarily well and yeah look if there’s more meat on the bone on the the deadlift then we’re
Going to want that we’re going to want to use that you know and and and and play that into our favor if we need to at Worlds um I I mean put it this way he told 75.5 which is an unofficial you know I put that in air quotes uh world record
So presumably he will come in as the number one nominated 66 right because uh you know the other totals that Penna has put up and kasmon and and so forth um and uh uh kiyota from Japan you know presumably those totals are going to be a little
Bit less so on paper he will be the number one ranked guy and it’ll be you know but as we know the nominations don’t all hold true to form but let me put it this way I’m I’m very confident with Jonathan um I think this is a great
Performance for him to build that momentum now again we’re going to be over there we’re going to be in a shorter flight of eight lifters you know um all killer no filler as we say and uh know he’s going to be up against it again and so the premium is going to be
Placed on execution attempt selection and making sure that we can we can make nine lifts because you know Jonathan being a subtotal guy you know we’re going to build an early lead or want to build an early lead and then be very strategic and tactical and surgical with
Our third with our three deadlifts remaining so that we can you know make these other people who will presumably be pulling after us very uncomfortable I mean but you know that’s in all likely Ood how the game is going to unfold and I have every confidence that Jonathan is up to the
Task Adriana Jonathan told me on the podcast um I wonder if I should tell this story now you know what I’ll put a pin in that I’ll put a pin in it his there’s something extremely significant to the day that he’s going to compete at Worlds oh cool everybody
Should listen to the podcast to find out yeah um it’ll make a Believer out of you it’s almost like the penis story it’s crazy his it’s crazy it’s like Penna last year only this time is Jonathan it’s it’s pretty nuts we we’ll see how that unfolds but Adriana what did you
Think what do you think about his his potential for worlds and what you saw at PA Nats yeah I mean it was a phenomenal battle like you said he’s the only lifter also who went nine for n yep so I think that’s important to note and the
One who was contending I think the most against him was Charlie Yang who went eight for nine so that there’s the importance of making attempts and the importance of that third squat being overturned as Matt said like that was like I think we were we were
Commentating and we saw it got to the one no lift and we were like that’s a big deal especially because squat is his lift you you know mhm and I was just watching watching waiting for it like to potentially be overturned cuz it was so close and as we know ipf judging tends
To be a little more strict so we’ll have to see how it unfolds on the day because that’s the story with him like he’s had problems with squat depth and then with the deadlifts he he’s had problems with having it be consistent and you said that we’re watching and we actually saw
His opener like it looked like it was like almost about to slip out of his hand or maybe not almost about to slip out but it was it was it was close it was uncomfortable for an opener put that way yeah yeah ex it wasn’t like a solid
Grip and then as you said he got more consistent and having a consistent deadlift is just so like massively important because that’s where you decide the placing so yeah it was a great battle like even with Clement and Brian not there and I think I won’t harp on like the
Horror performances too much but going in I think Morgan could have been considered the favorite just because he had the highest total going in and he was dealing with some injuries but like it was kind of a question mark like he had a lot of time and as the battle was
Unfold unfolding we were commenting and I was like it looks like Morgan is operating below his best so it just made it all the more interesting and going into Worlds I’ll say I think he is the favorite just because there’s not a lifter that first of all is going to
Have the total that he has coming in and second of all is very consistent like it would be different if there was a lifter in there that consistently goes nine for nine but there’s not there’s Pana of course the reigning Champion coming in and he always puts up massive gym lifts
But then there’s the meat execution there’s the cut that he has to make so there’s that and then kiyota who actually I think pulled for the win over Pana last year but he’s got like issues with um technique and execution and then we have CM San it’s kind of a repeat of
Last year honestly between CM San Pana kiyota and then a new American coming in with um Jonathan Garcia and C saying it’s like I think he might still officially hold the world record actually yeah so he’s still officially holds the world record but I think he was dealing with some health issues so
It’ll be a good battle it’ be really good and I would say Jonathan’s the favorite but it’s not by a lot looking at the other 66s uh now Charlie Charlie Yang went 705 which keep in mind that’s the number that won the World Championships Charlie had a great day
But he had the jump he was forced to do so if he wanted to win from a 2 close too it was really it was close from a 295 to 3075 that is a healthy big jump at the end um Garcia Ari and Messi kessi forcing Charlie’s hand beautifully
Played and they I know when they were talking about it Jonathan said I can go more on my last dead and Aran said let’s air on the side of caution you could tip over and I told Jonathan every lifter always thinks they have more in them
Than they do exactly how much more you don’t know Aran played it exactly right I think this is the number we get the most out of you and we forced Charlie just over the top and Charlie came within seconds inches half an inch of locking that bad boy out and and taking
The unofficial world record taking the Team USA spot taking the National Title Charlie was right there Charlie is a phenomenal talent that we all knew he was a contender but I don’t think we knew quite he had this much in him where he would literally be he would
Have post he was just so close to posting up the biggest official 66 kilo total um I mean he’ll be back he’s a young guy he’s he’s he’s got a world of potential uh Austin Nikolai who’s coached by big body Chris um Joey flex’s brother coming in third super young dude
Probably I think they’re talking about going the junior Nationals route Junior World route um we’ll have to see but it depends if he gets into any of these SPD competitions or how that looks we’ll see there’s a lot of different Pathways now for these lifters and um yri touched up
On Morgan Aquino Garcia not having the greatest day but hats off to him for showing up you don’t know until you get there you hear stories about guys and girls coming in saying wasn’t 100% start playing ball and you rise to the occasion okay we have it today other
Times you show up you know you’re not 100% praying for a miracle it’s not there that’s fine he’s had his big moments um he’s he’s won major competitions he’ll be back but I I do say like hats off to the guy for showing up uh regardless and Rodrigo monzo who
Menzo who for five straight lifts was looking like M man is on a whole another track he was the deal with him wealth wealth of potential hard time executing um he’s bombed out before on deadlifts five straight lifts and we were talking in the commentary Booth oh my God as he
Turned it all around missed one of his his his final bench not a big deal it is what it is but unfortunately missed his opening deadlift which made him have to retake that deadlift and now he’s really behind it it he doesn’t have a second attempt
He has to go all in on his third and him going one for three in the deadlifts was more of a situation where because he had to retake his opener his hand was forced on the last one and it was a bit of a hellary not crazy he’s hit 300 305
That’s not by any means oh my God this is a waste of an attempt but he was forced and if it was a local meet or something like that and he’s not forced to try to pull for position I’m glad he pulled for the position by the way uh
Matt’s the one who hand let you speak to it but um yeah what do you think about Manzo are we are we probably getting back on track here if if he didn’t Bobble his opening deadlift he hits his third at 300 kilos instead and probably more to the game
Plan you wanted his total would have been a whole lot different yeah for sure I mean I think if we just back up one second you know I always harp on this attempt selection and execution if you you know as Adriana said you look at Jonathan Garcia 9 for9 Place Charlie
Yang eight for n third place was also an8 for n Austin Nikolai then Morgan who came in fourth made seven and my guy unfortunately Mano made six so and that’s how everything shook out right so it places a premium upon attempt selection and execution and so we say
That all the T all the time and and people don’t like hearing me beat that drum routinely but the facts are the facts and when you have a class that is this tight where any of these five guys are you know gold medal worthy and capable it it literally and figuratively
Comes down to who executes the best and who makes the most lifts and yeah in rago’s case we turned it around in the squat I think we nailed it got you know pretty much everything out of him that we could in the squat he missed his
Third bench as you said Ryan kind of these attempts on you know on third benches are kind of right on the line he had a grip issue on his opening deadlift it wasn’t strength I think he just lined up in correctly or the bar wasn’t where
He wanted it not making excuses but he missed it so as you said forces us to retake and then we just made a big jump going for third place I mean the strength I think was there had we taken kind of these normal progression and normal attempts you know if we’d made
280 we were looking at about a 295 second and then kind of play the game that was what we were thinking and um you know he had a great prep a great training uh cycle leading in I think we pulled he pulled 310 in training so I
Mean you know we were we were excited we figured with game day adrenaline if he hits 295 on the second look we might be able to make a serious move you know with that third one but look it that’s how this is sports not going to make
Excuses it’s back into the lab Rodrigo will get better I think this was kind of um the meat that he needed in terms of you know gaining some momentum in the squat and proving to himself once again uh that he’s worthy that he belongs in this conversation that he belongs in
This group and the same goes for the other for gentleman you know they’re all worthy and belong there as well but when you’ve got five lifters this tightly packed um it’s going to come down to execution it’s going to come down to attempt selection and I suspect the same is
Going to happen at Worlds and so you know got to make gotta get Jonathan to make three clean squats at Worlds he has the current world record at 275.50 so I mean it’s no secret that we will strategically install a game plan that leverages that chip to our
Advantage try to take a chip on our third squat that’s no secret you know build that total and try to you know get him to make nine lifts and put it Out Of Reach because these other lifters are going to be pulling after us but as I said confident with Jonathan thrilled to
Have him on the team you know what’s funny um Jonathan’s busting my chops in the warm-up room he’s I’m coming over talking to him like M man how you doing he goes ah Ryan you never posed me you’re gonna po are you gonna post my
Recap if I win and and and and we did Adriana thre the collab and I accepted that with the quickness but he’s like ah you never po you’re always posting your boy p you love those grinders don’t you and um and he’s busting my chops and he
Was saying the SPD had a poster with a bunch of like lifters on it and he’s like we don’t have any six sixes on here we got to get a six6 on there in Aran kessi without missing the be goes be careful what you ask for they’ll probably throw pen on
There so he’s like ah okay okay I deserve that one but um yeah I look forward to seeing Jonathan at uh at the World Championships y it shakes out I mean it’s crazy but of those top end 66s I mean only three even get to go to World Games anything can happen it’s
It’s it’s just so tight um let’s move on to the 74s obviously this is the Austin Perkins story what do you say about Austin Perkins perk hit a 700 pound Squad as a 74 163b man that’s ridiculous that’s a 318 Kil that’s a ridiculous Squad I remember
Just a couple years ago we were waiting for an 83 to do that and now here we are Austin Perkins Austin Perkins also totaled 839 kilos with only seven attempts not that he missed any he went seven for seven he said thank you but no thank you
I’ll B at attempt 8 n and 8 38.5 was the gold standard set by Taylor Atwood in 2021 which isn’t that long ago when Taylor Atwood hit 8385 in 2021 the entire powerlifting Community as a whole was shocked and rattled he literally took every single formula and powerlifting
Available number one Taylor Atwood all of them wils goodlift points dots he had the tested record he had the untested record he had every World title National Title best lifter at Worlds he had every single achievement you could ask for Taylor Atwood had when he hit that 838
Point5 he was the king if someone said no I just don’t think Taylor Atwood’s number one based on what there was nothing left and here we are 2024 in Austin Perkins can move past that with seven attempts only in cruise control beside the squats how special of a talent is this guy
Adriana I mean the numbers speak for themselves right it was just three years ago at 2021 usapl Ron Nats where Taylor hit the 838 point5 shock the community what’s like what’s possible anymore as a 74k kg and that was also at the same Nationals and I believe in the same session too
Where Jamar Royer hit the first 700 pound squat in the 83 kilo class and that was a big deal yeah I remember that um and now it’s just three years later and what like what are we talking about what is Austin doing I am so excited
That he decided to switch over and he’s goingon to go the world um tried to win his first world championships and he can’t Sleepwalk like Shell’s going to be there and we’ll get to that later what shell did at Arnold UK but sh’s gonna be there seems to be making great progress
For a man who’s a little bit older than Austin he’s 35 quite a bit older yeah and who’s been in the game for such a long time I mean Austin has too but he’s just on the younger side and now Austin’s going to come over and presumably he’s the big favorite to win
Worlds go to Sheffield who knows what he’s going to do there I mean I won’t spoil everything that was on the podcast you just dropped but he’s he’s been talking he was talking some crazy numbers and for a second um watching this he went all out on squats he gets
To his second bench hits 195 we’re like that’s not too far off what he’s done um so for a second they like is he going to go all out like is he’s saying screw it he go 860 or whatever but he he decided not to he decided to just chip Taylor’s
Total and presumably he’s not going to go all out at Worlds because why would you do that when you got Sheffield coming up so it’s just going to be this like big anticipation for not quite a year but like 10 months of when Austin
Is going to go all out and it’s going to build it up because it’s at Sheffield like the biggest meat in powerlifting and we’ve seen the performances that people put on there so I’m just excited to see what he does at Worlds against shell and of course Tim
And cie can’t can’t count them out and then moving forward even more what he does at Sheffield I’ll say this I’ll throw something to Matt here but with what Shell’s doing since December November the beginning winter and now we’re just leaving winter shell took the world
Record and bumped it up what close to 25 kilos 25 kilos if you’re Austin Perkins and you’re going to Sheffield and you were going to and it’s all based on percentage of how you break the world record you originally had 790 before shell returned and now it’s 850
And Shell’s bumped up you know around the range of slightly shy of 25 kilos it’s like my man relax you’re killing my bank account right now and if you’re Bob Matthews Ashton Russ you are like my man my man welcome back my friend oh my God
You are buying this guy dinners you are sting I mean shell single-handedly although likely unable to pull off an upset against Austin at Worlds it would be a massive upset is still making an impact in the game taking this world record for a ride and for sure thorn in Austin side if
Shell never existed and didn’t have this second win third win whatever wind we at for Shell Austin would be a heavy favor for Sheffield God knows where he could take it from 790 to deep into 800s r now if shell finishes his competition first at Worlds and breaks the total world
Record I don’t know where he might end up at if it ends up 8258 whatever Austin will be like severely handicapped by Shell’s fourth wind shell just keeps mitigating would he get the bag that Austin could win at at Sheffield and and to be honest it makes feel that much more attractive
Because the field is much more even now the the Gap yes for sure uh Austin’s going to be the favorite to go but the gap between him and the world record now is due to Shell has been greatly mitigated and all the other contenders like Bob Russ can
Be like oh now their mouths are getting a little wet and they’re like okay you know what what was previously a walk away for for perk maybe we’re talking and if perk isn’t 100% what are we talking about Sheffield’s up in the air all of a
Sudden so um a lot of moving pieces here that happened over the over the course of the week uh both with perk both with shell and how they’re they’re Rivals but not necessarily competitive on the head-to-head basis uh but impacting each other nonetheless Matt you were handling Taylor when he did his 8
38.5 you’re a part of that history um obviously you’re now going to be perks head coach for Team USA and and we’ll see what happens from there but what was your impression on Austin’s performance and you’ve been around in powerlifting for decades you’ve seen Generations you’re back in the Ed Cohen era how
Special is perk um yeah I was there for Taylor’s performance like you said um I had keys to the Lamborghini if you will that day and that was an extraordinary performance make no mistake about it what Taylor did on that day in 2021 um set the world on fire and and he
Did something that we didn’t think was possible and then you have Austin Perkins come along and essentially you know at at usapl Nationals last year hit 851 you know at just a stitch over the 75 kilo uh weight class limit or what have you and then on this one hits 839
Takes Taylor’s record and does it on seven attempts so again we’re talking about a generational type Talent when we talk about Austin Perkins and this guy executes at an extraordinarily high level too and he seems to be getting better with his execution becoming more consistent uh and so look the arrow is
Pointing up way up for Austin Perkins um we have not seen his best and as you said Ryan uh going into Worlds I mean look on paper it is what it is I’m not you know he he’ll be the favorite he’ll be the heavy favorite um
But he can’t slack and he knows that um he recognizes who’s out there and chel backlin is an absolute Legend And the fact I just was playing around with some numbers while I was listening to you chel took the world record from 800 kilos to or was 790 I should say right
He broke it and and and kicked it to 800 and now he’s done it again right kicked it up to 815 so when you look at that and he did that in three months so that was a 1.9 right in three months so that was a 1.9% increase on the world record total
So let’s just assume that shell can do that again within the next three months because we have another three months right that he can put another right 1.9% now we’re talking 8:30 okay now I’m not saying that to put pressure on Chell but look Chell executes at a high level too
Um he’s got a huge deadlift on him we’re all aware huge bench I mean this guy can play this guy can lift and so um I know that Austin respects him I know that Austin is fully aware of his capability is I also know that Austin is supremely
Confident and rightfully so he should be he has every right to be confident um but we can’t sleep on the rest of the field and we’re not gonna sleep on the rest of the field we are we are respectful of chel backlin of Kelly o Hanssen and Tim motti we know what he’s
Going up against you know what he’s going up against in Lithuania and so all respect is due to these other competitors we’re not going to sleep on them um Austin has to go out he has to execute he’s got to get the job done and uh you know objective number one is to
Win objective number two is to play that num game and you know presumably not push the world record too high but hey man it is what it is there’s one day out the calendar year when you can be an ipf world champion and that’ll be the day
For him and so that’s the that’s the priority the rest of it is just going to be icing on the cake and trying to mitigate the whole Sheffield deal and all that stuff but job number one is is getting him the W and he knows that but
There he’s gonna get a stiff challenge man because I’m not sleeping on Shel backin that guy’s that guy’s trouble so here’s the problem he shell is so good that he can’t afford to cruise control too much and and then yep misjudge and not give himself enough
Room by Deads he’s going to have to if he wants to win while making sure he’s got the win he has to go around just in case Shell’s 8:30 yeah he should cruise around 840 or something to make sure of course and there’s conflicting interests because on the personal side he’ll be
Like man this is really cutting into my Sheffield situation but on the other side you would tell him do you even want to make it son right you gotta win and unfortunately anything less to A40 I don’t know I don’t know shell might unless shell really is missing lifts
Right then you’re like okay okay okay but if shell goes six for six and you know is deadlift yeah what are we talking here if you get caught sleeping here’s the problem here’s the problem handling wise you will be like I got you ordinarily drop her drop the hammer put
The foot on the gas and we’re GNA bury this guy and by the time deadlifts comes it’s already over by your second deadlift maybe your first but if you’re kind of like hey let’s let’s you know let’s take it easy let’s let’s win but let’s not take the total too much for a
Ride well how low do you cruise control it and then sh’s like guess what Playboy you played it too low guess what it’s too late though we’re already in the third and final event and you underestimated me too much so you know what you guys are lucky to an extent
Shell this weekend because if shell didn’t I never would have thought he bumped up 25 kilos in three months you guys are lucky he’s giving you data points because perk might have come in here being like look 825 should do it huh and You’ like probably and you would
Never have known shell is Right knocking around 8:25 you know wowers and and and here’s the thing look man I’m a glass half full guy right this is this I don’t look at this as a problem I look at this as an opportunity right glass half full and so
Get these two lions in a cage together and let them go at it and and and and you know and and neither one of them is going to back down and I had dinner with Joe stanic Austin coach right after Austin one that same night and we had we
Had dinner and we discussed some things and and we’ve got a you know look they’re going to put together a good training recipe and I’ve got a private group chat going with Austin and Joe as well so I’m got my eyes on his lips constantly and um yeah we’re not taking
Anybody lightly we’re not taking anybody for granted any situation but job number one is to go over there and secure the W so like you said Ryan we cannot take our foot off the gas by the same token we we we will strategically install a game
Plan just like we do with every lifter that maximizes our strengths mitigates our weaknesses and puts him in the best position to win and then he just has to go out there and execute so it’s gonna be must C TV one way or the other I guarantee you sh walks into that hotel
Lobby at different various couches chilling you’ll have Russ you’ll have Bob you’ll have you know Ashton he’s going to Walt in there be like so which one of you gentleman taking me out to dinner tonight cuz you you each one of you guys owes a little a little
Something just let me wet my beak here because you guys all owe me something I clip this kids Wings enough whatever I do at Worlds be dabmed I 25 kilos I took off the kid you owe me something but um we’ll see what it translates into go
Ahead aded yeah I wanted to add in just quickly because we kind of hared on this a little bit but with Shel of course we’re a month after Sheffield but at the time of watching and after seeing the results I kind of thought that Shel could have potentially
Been a big favorite to Podium at Sheffield now he was there but as a reserve he didn’t he wasn’t able to lift um but yeah I thought he could have been a favorite to Podium if not win the whole thing because I mean he put up 815
Of course it’s a month after he would have had less time to train people’s attempts would have been different blah blah blah but only three people only three men at Sheffield broke the world record and now he’s done 815 whereas the previous world record was 800 so well
Before that it was 790 if he knew he’s doing Sheffield imagine he got the Sheffield invite before that he wouldn’t even bumped it from 790 like it’s you can’t sleep on him he’s the goat killer yeah he is the go killer he’s killing perk without killing perk perk is like
Dog you’re killing me right now what are you doing this is the slow bleed tactic we haven’t seen this one before but yeah shell is the go- killer he beat olic in equipment he beat Atwood and um this it’s such a phenomenal story shell because he’s he’s he’s been around the
Block he’s he was gone gone with injuries and here he is again actually Taylor I would uses him as a source of inspiration to come back is what Taylor said is like man my old rival now is like one of my chief sources of inspiration but um yeah let’s move on into the
883s we had ourselves a good oldfashioned shootout between a subtotal specialist and maybe that’s that’s maybe even not totally fair for Chris Perez because he’s got a big deadlift on him too the difference is though he doesn’t have Angelo fortino style deadlift which is a monster these guys are Rivals now I
Believe they’re one in one at least at this as of recent um they had a good battle went right down to the very last deadlift Chris pushed him Chris had a phenomenal day it was at 8.27.19 that’s when you’re going to force the deadlift specialist to load up and
Possibly just load Beyond Angelo’s got a massive deadlift on him and he came ever so close did you call this one with me as well no M uh scalin called this one with me on this live stream it was super close that lockout I’m sure Chris had
And did you handle him Matt no I didn’t I was helping marcelus in the back just warm those guys up but no Marcel was yeah Marcel was okay um but it was it was super close yeah it looked like it might have been locked and just slightly shoulders slightly forward a little bit
As close as you get to having it but not quite all the way back these guys are going to do it again I mean uh that was a great battle I’m glad they were both there they’re going to go back and forth so we got ourselves a good old fashioned
Rivalry in the 83s and then who knows who’s going to show up next year from De scw and to I mean 83 is always well populated um but then let’s talk about and I’ll let you guys talk about that as well but also Russell Ori now Russ hadn’t competed in a hot minute
Obviously crossing over from usapl he had to serve his time he served out a year um maybe even a little more by the time he got to the platform and he said when he hit the platform he felt uncharacteristically awkward little nervous he he wasn’t used to it the
Weight on his back making sure he hit depth it felt different felt off it was like a tuneup for him of sorts 860 is the biggest 83 kilo total we’ve ever seen Russ wasn’t happy or satisfied with it I myself thought he performed admirably um I know he’s got more in him
When we look at the training totals he could put together and what he shifts in the gym I don’t know if it’s just his body weight is bigger at those points as a 90 kilo lifter Russ’s we seen when he did in South Korea on the other side of of
The world no less he’s got a massive top end so I’m sure some W could has something to do with it but he’s been 83 for a long time and I think it can continue to make so I think by the time worlds rolls around he should be able to take 860 and
Maybe bring it up to an 870 range and throw another 10 kilos on there but will he need to should he I don’t think so let’s see what the rest of the world does the biggest threat at 83 kilo is actually perk if he was to move up which
He’s not going to for worlds obviously so we do have and we don’t have Delaney Wallace who’s in the 840s the closest lifters in the 883s are all in the 820s roughly what we are seeing at paats I think and I’ll throw it to you Matt as you’re going to be handling him
How you feel about it but probably somewhere around the 840s if he finishes around there worlds should get him the win and then based off of that he’ll have a big upswing if he could go into 870 there at Sheffield 875 from 842 A5 to 875 that’s a nice
Percentage jump let’s see what everyone else does at Sheffield he’s a contender to win it especially with shell around um so what are you thinking about this Matt I know you probably saw add in in the British lifter did 825 and jirens did 823 and a half the
Rest of the field they’re no chumps they’re no slouches but they’re they’re below 840 range what are your thoughts on it yeah I thought so I think you know on on the preview podcast I think I was the only one that called this correctly because you said over under for 870 so I
Just wanna I just yeah you get your flowers so so yeah so so I called that um so yes I’ll say this respectfully and this is actually a compliment this is exactly where I thought Russ would be I figured he would be in that 860 to 870
Range to your point and admittedly from him he felt Rusty he felt like a couple things were untiy and I have every confidence that he will brush those things up you know I think maybe he he had a bench issue I think where maybe his feet weren’t flat on one of those
And I think maybe there was you know a red light or something on one of the uh squats for depth or what have you um but yeah I I expect a more you know this was like like you said Brian him coming back in sticking his foot back in the water
Saying hey I’m back this is what I’m capable of um but also shaking off some of the rest and so look if he can put up 860 on a less than his best day and on what he deems to be a Rusty Day imagine what he can do when he’s firing on all
Cylinders now to your point will he have to fire on all cylinders and put up this 860 to 870 that we all know he’s capable of I mean heck he’s probably capable of more than 870 I think um probably not to your point because the next closest
Competitors you know ad and jirens from uh Great Britain I don’t know if they’ll both be coming I don’t know how that works out for their team and of course then aaro is always looming with that huge deadlift but EX look Russ does execute at a very high level he makes
Most of his attempts um and I have every confidence that he will do so in Lithuania uh he’ll be the heavy favorite but much like you know the situation with with Perkins maybe not quite as much um you know can’t take his foot off the gas too much because you don’t want
To you know leave the door open for some of these other people and I know that he’s got massive respect for these other lifters but look he’s the heavy favorite he’s the best 83 on the planet Bar None and um you know we’re g to see what he
Can put together and and I think also to his benefit this time around he won’t let the body weight creep up as much right because we’re competing again in about 12 weeks so presumably he will not get as heavy you know uh during his prep for worlds as he
Was in his quote unquote offseason and time away so I think that’s to his benefit and I think he’ll just build on this I think he will have more strength in the tank if we need to call upon it but I don’t necessarily suspect we
Will what would you say and first off a couple things I do like nine for n day y didn’t miss a single lift yeah PR total Y and Shu off the whatever Rusty had and a great Point as well look he was off for over a year body weight probably was
Up body weight was down body weight and he’s gonna hit weight be fine hit PRS because he’s he’s rust like this this is what he does however he can even be even Russ can improve upon and I think this is a great tuneup both for him hitting
Weight getting the rust off getting that Benchmark okay we’re at 860 where do we want to go from here now having said that um what what would you put him if you want to win but you want cruise control and you will have the keys to this Lamborghini yep what are you
Thinking sir so same thing I mean I I don’t want to sit here and kind of give you this knee-jerk reaction in terms of total because I wanna I want to give respect and and do respect to the other competitors that are coming in uh but you know Russell currently has the world
Record in the squat so he just did 330 and you know and that wasn’t you know an absolute limit lift for him so look he has the world record at 32.5 so once again no secret there we’re going to leverage that to our advantage and we’re
Going to put a chip on his third Squad I mean we’d be fools not to right um you know I don’t think that anybody is that’ll be in that flight is going to be in danger of T taking the bench record and then you know so that so there there
Will be no chip available presumably because that record is held by Owen hubard at 218 and a half so I don’t think that any of the 883s will be benching that much but then you’ve got you know anaro with that monster deadlift so to your point Ryan we can’t take our foot off
The gas too too much and we don’t want to make a mistake and Miss lifts to leave that door open but I’m supremely confident in him in Russ because he does execute at a high level I fully expect him to make nine attempts again and that’s not to put pressure on him that’s
To instill confidence and encourage him but you know I’m not g to come out here and say oh we we need 850 we need 840 I mean look he and Joseph are going to put a plan together they’re going to get as strong as they possibly can leading into
Worlds so that we’ve got that money in the bank so to speak so that if we need to make a so if we need to make a proper withdrawal we make a withdrawal you know and otherwise we see how it is come time for deadlifts and see what the situation
Is and and put him in a position to number one secure the W I’ve talked to Russ and I know for a fact that that is the most important thing to him he’s he values World Championships in terms of Legacy we are cut from the same cloth
That way and so you know first and foremost yeah first and foremost he wants to secure that and then you play the numbers game you know based on the Sheffield and the total and that sort of thing but you know there’s there’s no other 83 that I’d rather roll into the
World championships with oh that’s that’s a fact yeah he’s the greatest a 83 that ever lived he’s the strongest 83 we’ve ever seen and um and he’s one of the most consistent powerlifters we have in this era I mean he never fumbles the ball and has to make a post about having
A bad day and that’s why we took an NA it’s been years since Russ’s lost as an 83 yeah he’s just a phenomenal even when he moved up to 90 he took the 90 kilo record on a whim across the world he’s so consistent with his performances and
He he knows he knows this is potentially a legacy Legacy defining moment for him right because you’ve got Delaney Wallace with two World Championships and Brett Gibbs with two World Championships and Russell or he with two and so now if he goes to Worlds and does what he needs to
Do and wins he can say I’m the only 83 kilo lifter that has three ipf world championship titles and that would really I think be the cherry on top of the Sunday in terms of cementing his legacy you know he has admitted in the past that he thought when he competed
Against Gibbs that Gibbs was stronger and came into you know they beat each other when they were less than their best you know because they were both kind of dinged when each other won but you know this this will be a legacy defining moment for him so I have every
Confidence that he’s gonna come in with both barrels loaded what do you think Adrian when you look at the 83s at PA Nats and Russ yeah I mean I don’t have um that much to add like I think Matt and you put some respect on Russ’s name because
This was a phenomenal performance and going in he had some doubs saying the squat depth is off and he his his third squat was not good at first and it was overturned so we’ll have to see if that sort of situation happens and in Lithuania we know the ipf judges are
Strict and yeah he’s had some doubs on his name around the squat depth and then same with the deadlift like oh his grip his grip his grip but as we know he trains in the gym with or he used to train in the gym with hard conditions in
Terms of the Heat and that’s kind of why his grip would slit but he held that deadlift and kind of I think just showed the world like hey I can I’m still consistent I’m still that guy that can go nine for nine hit 860 as an 83 which
Is like crazy to think about and I’ll just throw in there that we had um ad omakin on the podcast just dropped yesterday and he did really well at Arnold UK and we’ll talk about it more later but he hit 825 but he locked out um a 350 kilo
Deadlift yep which would have given him 840 so it’s it’s almost the same story as Austin in the 74s like similar of course ad is kind of a newcomer in the game as opposed to Shell but he’s been making crazy progress he only hit 800 this past November and at Arnold UK at
Arnold UK he hit 825 and that last deadlift was clearly not a strength problem he had some up and down motion but he locked it out and that would have given him 840 and he came on the podcast talked talk some crazy numbers I don’t know if he’s going
To be on the world’s team yet it was kind of up in the air because the selection is a little strange this year for Great Britain but but I I think he’ll be on the team we’ll find out soon and I really hope he is because I think him coming in and same
With Jen too I mean Jen put up 840 in the gym those two British lifters coming in means that Russ can’t just sleepwalk and do 840 or 8:45 or something I think given that ad especially is making so much progress and we’ll have to see of
Course it’s a thing to make so much progress but can you continue that he’s saying he can’t he’s talking about like 860 870 guys wow everybody’s going to throw big I don’t blame him either because his he’s trying to Hype it up which that’s what you do I love it yeah
But of course Russ is the heavy favorite like I think he would have to miss some lifts and he’s very consistent but I think add going in will if he’s on the team will make it at least a little interesting and not not like Russ is winning by 40 kilos or something
Especially given that he’s not going to push the total as far as he can well with this information I’m sure Matt will we’ll see if he makes the team ad makes the team and if he does they’re going to review all the lifts and what happens if he gets that final
Lift and he’s at 840 we should be 50 or they’ll they’ll work out their wiggle R scenarios um and see if ad makes it on the day because once you have the 840 range okay this is what he squatted when he hit 840 he goes three for three in
Squats you kind of see where the pacing is like oh my God he went up five more kilos well if he hits his final deadlift this time where does that put him 845 okay after bench what are we looking you can kind of you’ll crunch the numbers
Matt Joey Russ they they’re in an enviable position but ad is gonna end up like shell yeah where it’s going to be like young man these guys coming out from around the world pushing the Americans the American favorites who are going to end up at Sheffield and maybe
Taking your foot off they got to put more gas more foot on the gas and they would have liked which is great for viewing and you do not want to get caught sleeping end up too far behind where you Cruise controlled it and AD is like oh thank God you took me for
Granted but obviously Matt Joey and Russ are not going to sleep on you we’re talking about it right now and Matt’s the head coach right so good luck good luck shell Andy you’re not we’re not looking past you but um it’s good it’s good the rest of the world’s catching up
It’s good the rest of the world is is going to push it and um none of these guys can like win on openers or have a bad day and still win they’re gonna have to perform but uh I’m also glad that they’re pushing it because I think the
The storyline before like maybe the past couple years was oh if you put in all the American 83 lifters then it would look totally different like an American or the podium would be just three Americans um and I’m so I’m glad that the rest of the world is kind of pushing
Past those limits I mean Chris put up like 8 27.5 Angelo was right there so and then Jen put up like 823 or something at it at 825 so it’s not like the rest of the world is going to be floating around 800 and then Russ just takes it all the way
I’m glad it’s a little like closer there’s a little less disparity between America and the rest of the world oh yeah know well if ad was not trying to beat up Russ and shoots to shoot over Chris he would have put in a deadlift that wouldn’t n him 840 it would n him
830 and 10 kilos off that deadlift he already locked out the deadlift that got him A40 he probably would have topped out all the Americans now Delaney would raise his hand and be like hey all right of course but but but uh but anyways we’re getting ahead of ourselves but
Yeah no I’m glad the rest of the world’s catching up and guys are coming out of nowhere every year somebody emerges out of nowhere it’s like well now you got to think about ad from here on out from here on out if he’s like this close to
Being an 840 what is he next year better think on that one well 850 is going to be you want to hit the podium you’re 840 and up it ain’t G to cut at any less um but yeah we’ll see we’ll see uh moving on to the 93 shall we
And Mr Bern your ships should have been Mr burn your calories my man came in a little fluffy and um missed weight um I know Matt you were super upset about it uh not as bad as if it was a national team we we read I read
Your book I read this part of your book Matt and um 100% And if you make a national team you took some spot and someone else could have had your spot so it is utmost important and there are repeat offenders of people sometimes make national teams don’t make weight
Don’t lift and it’s it’s a shame um in this situation Gavin’s hurting himself but still it was it was quite a big Miss we got robbed of a major showdown at 93 it’s unfortunate both individuals did 895 lbe it Gavin had the luxury being 2.4 kilos overweight which is like five pounds or
More overweight that’s significant that’s not that’s not small that’s you know half or quarter of weight class up so we can’t really compare them side by side however um I will say I’m glad Gavin lifted regardless and post it up 895 it even though it’s not at weight it gives
Us a bit of a treat to look forward to when Gavin comes back in at 93 he it reminds everybody he is still amongst the elite elite when it comes to Top End strength he is right there with Kao he’s right there with Petri he’s right there with Gustaf he’s right there
With the mill so when he re-enters and that story I don’t know who knows where he’s going to end up reemerging but when he does reemerge as a 93 he’ll be right back in the mix and potentially within Striking Distance of the world record if he makes a national
Team somewhere I don’t know what that’s going to look like but if we look to the gentleman who did make the 93 kilo class brenon Tre um his it became the goal became that much easier previously if Gavin showed up he’s got to beat Gavin and still out total
Kico once Gavin became a 105 guest lifter everything just became straightforward 895 um essentially they cruised him to a situation marcelus was on the podcast earlier today I’ll drop that as well but Marcela said a little background Brandon was a stitch roughed up coming into to this prep hadn’t been pulling heavy very
Often they thought he had I don’t know if he pulled over 800 or if he did maybe only once in prep they weren’t entirely sure how many big pulls he had in them so tried to stack the deck have him one big pull in the second attempt lock it
In if something bad happens he pulls Sumo he’s he’s a little rusty with it whatever they’ll go for another but they didn’t think he had two big pulls so it was a bit dicey it was work in the end Brennon locks it out looks side to side
You know what that means ladies and gentlemen gives that kind of expression on his face we blow it up on the commentary and there it is Brandon Petri um lived up to the hyp made Team USA duplicated gustaf’s 895 which is no small feat that’s the biggest 93 kilo
Total we’ve ever seen for Brandon on his debut in the weight class to equal the new world record is quite the feat now that’s living up to the height and 895 seems like a special number all of a sudden we have three 93s lb Gavin did it
As a small 105 but we have three all of a sudden in the first quarter of this year we have 393 is hit 895 um they’re all leveling up and the same thing’s going to happen at Worlds EML crev did 9006 in training it’s in training I got you but this world is
Going be Dynamite Adriana what did you think about Brennan’s performance uh what do you think about his chances at Worlds and Gavin and then we’re gonna let uh Matt weigh in no pun intended yeah I mean Petri I’m a big Petri fan so I was really excited to see him get that
Spot and it was close like the last deadlift he wasn’t he wasn’t going to drop it he he drops something on the story earlier like I was Dr he was upset people were doubting but it was work it wasn’t it was hard it was it was work it
Was hard at the top and I honestly I was watching live and I was like oh it was really hard at the top like it was close but I’m really glad he got that I watched his YouTube recap and he kind of shared about how he was dealing with
Some injuries coming in and it was tough like he didn’t it wasn’t an easy prep you know just the fact that he didn’t hit I don’t even know if it was 800 I don’t know if he hit over like 780 or so maybe it was that I I just did earlier
But I’ve done a bunch this weekend I don’t even yeah like only hitting only hitting over that once and then you come in and you’ve got to hit I don’t know the exact math it’s like 810 or so to get that spot and it was tough but he
Had it and I was just super excited for him it’s a shame for Kao honestly um or obviously and it’s going to be weird to not see him at a World Championships given that he’s the reigning Champion so that’s gonna be it’s it’s tough It’s like you’re so
Happy for Petri but then it’s such a shame for Kao and then same with Gavin I remember 30 minutes before weigh-ins were about to close someone came up to me and said hey Gavin Gavin Miss weight and I’m thinking like 0. 2 point maybe point four kilos I’m like he’s got time
He’s got 30 minutes like he like I think he can do it and they’re like nah he’s he’s heavy they’re like he’s he’s I think he’s way over and I’m like what and they look and it’s 2.4 kilos and I’m I think Matt will have some words to say
About it but 2.4 kilos is a lot and we don’t know the whole story of Co of course um he went on Instagram saying he had been doing sauna the whole day and it just wasn’t working as it usually does I mean he just competed at Sheffield like five
Weeks prior and he made wait there Al be I think he did have to weigh in twice there yeah and the weight’s tough like he’s got a cut like I’ve heard rumors he walks around like close to 100 kilos in the off seon and I thought it
Was so weird that this is his first national meet in I I think like two years um he last went to USVI Nationals I believe two years ago and he missed weight there too and that was his competition where he was trying to get a world team spot and he wasn’t sure
If he made it considering he missed weight so it came back to bite him and it’s weird that it’s like a national meet you’re thinking oh you don’t got to travel it’s closer to you know it’s home soil it’s not Che field it’s not worlds
But he goes to those meets and he makes way and then he comes back to the home soil or not traveling all the way to Europe South Africa and he misses weight again so it’s kind of interesting and I’m glad he went 895 and even without the third squat he
Didn’t need it he went 10 kilos he jumped 10 kilos to his third squat with three 40 I mean he’s half he’s a chunk of we class up but his strength was incredible on the day yeah 340 and I think he hit 345 like a week after so it
Was really great to see him squat in person and people were comparing like his third Squat and Russ’s because he went to the jury and Russ’s got overturned Gavin didn’t the third squat came back to fight him but of course he wasn’t in contention for the placing but
He just wanted to put up the biggest total he can he could and I’m just excited to see where Gavin goes next like I don’t know if he’s I don’t think I don’t know if he’ll be able to get on like npfs or if he’s going to do that Raleigh meat and I
Guess the question is if he’s GNA weigh in at 93 or go at 105 if he does yeah I don’t think he’s going 105 yeah I mean that’s not full 105 but like if it’s a meat just based on goodlift points gotcha gotcha gotcha yeah or if he wants
To make a statement by going all the way back down to 93 so would I would tell him recover recover and go 93 and show people if you ever want to make a national team at 93 you need to start recovering need send a message you
Better because you got a guy like Matt Gary who’s not impressed with that kind of stuff and he’s the head coach and you’re gonna start making national teams and um it leaves a bad bad taste to your point it’s happened twice in his career I’ll give him this whenever he’s made a
National team he’s never missed H he’s never represented W and miss so I’ll give him that as well and you guys know I love Gavin and I love that he lifted and performed very very well if he got that third squat like the reason I won’t
Chew up too much time here Matt I’ll give it to you in one sec but when they were doing comparing Russ and comparing Gavin saying aren’t these the same Russ as past Gavins didn’t but we’re comparing two lifts who are right on the line of course it could be 50 both of
Them are 50 they were both right on the line there was no controversy there in my mind’s eye Gavin was close could have went either way it went against him russes was close could have went either way it went for him but that’s kind of
The way Sports go when it’s close and on the line there’s no controversy there when people are trying to make something of it like uh who I seen the stories as well to your point Adriana I thought yeah there’s no news here though that’s like um have a boxing match that’s super
Close could go either way doesn’t matter who you give it to the other guys are gonna say I got ripped off it is what it is that didn’t mean nothing um Gavin’s always on the line Russ has been on the line before and it bit Russ it just
Didn’t bite him this time it bit Gavin whatever you know that’s we’re close but Matt what are your thoughts my friend you you’ve been patient with this yeah I mean I think you all tied a ribbon around it quite nicely I mean I I guess I’ll start with Gavin I mean there’s two
Words that kind of come to mind for me is just uh with him not making weight um the first one is disappointing obviously um and I and I’m sure that he’s the most disappointed of all right you know I’m I’m just disappointed from the standpoint of being some of being in the
Sport somebody who loves the sport who loves these head-to-head matchups and you want to see these Titans Go at each other and see who is the best Lifter on that day and so we were matter of factly just robbed of that because he didn’t make weight and then the second adjective
That I would use is avoidable and so you know I mean I think we all like Gavin we want to see Gavin do well we want to see Gavin uh push these boundaries we know that he’s capable unquestionably um but I guess he flew too close to the Sun
Once again after Sheffield and so I will say this I mean you know uh Kedrick Quan is his nutritionist and so I’m sure they installed a plan but for whatever reason they weren’t able to execute that plan you know with making weight and I’m this
Is just my guess and I look I I know very little about this stuff game day coaching is my air of expertise not nutrition okay I’ll be the first one to say that it’s not but I’m just guessing that if he cut a lot of weight to make
It into Sheffield and he did and we that that’s well documented that he had a hard cut trying to make weight had to get on the scale a couple of times at Sheffield right so that was an artificial number and so immediately after you know you rehydrate you recomp
And so forth and then the days and the weeks after Sheffield your body kind of renormalizes so to speak so presumably he I guess knew that he was gonna kind of have to do this again and just wasn’t able to get down to the spot where he needed to get so again disappointing
Avoidable um missed opportunity for him really you know because he puts himself in a situation where he can’t go head-to-head against Brandon and and therefore essentially disqualifies himself from the opportunity to qualify to make the national team now having said that uh he had a good meet he
Totaled 8.95 uh you know if if that third squat to your point Ryan would gone we’re talking about he’s over 900 kilos albeit not at a 93 body weight but you know a couple kilos over and so we all look forward to seeing what’s in
Store for him and what he decides to do and I’m sure he’ll speak to that in terms of Petri couldn’t be any happier for Brandon um as I said during that session I was in the back um marcelus was out front I was warming up all of
Marcel’s lifters so that was uh that was uh Chris Perez uh Ashton and Brandon and I was back there and I was in charge of getting those guys ready and so it was really wonderful to work with those guys for the first time second time I’d work
With Perez but first time with Petri and of course we’ll get to Ashton and I thought Petri just executed really well he did what he needed to do I understand that his prep was met with some challenges in terms of injury but he and marcelus put a plan together gave us a
Little scare on that final deadlift I will say this to everybody who’s listening if you weren’t there in person you don’t understand what exactly what the deadlift looked like because things on video look faster look better than they do to the naked eye like Adriana said that was a tough tough attempt okay
But he made it so here we are and and they push their chips into the center of the table like you said Brian uh they didn’t think that he had three big deadlifts in him you know thought that he only had two and then look it worked
They made the right call and and and he hit the 895 to Trump kao’s total and make the national team and I’m ecstatic to have Brandon on the team I know that he’s been working really hard toward this and we look forward to the challenges that are in front of us and
He’s going to have some very very stiff competition over there with with headlin and crev and then you’ve got Sasha Steinbach you know big puller and of course let’s not forget Carlos Peterson Griffith you know and so forth that is a stacked class and you are gonna be
Fighting tooth and nail and I’m I’m looking forward to that session that is going to be an incredible session um I yeah I I can’t wait attempt selection of course and execution you hear me say it all the time but it is going to be at
Such a premium you cannot miss um you know going into to to that competition and so I’m I’m ecstatic to have him on the team and looking forward to it Carlos Peterson Griffith is I mean he did 875 at Sheffield he could be right up into the
890s by the time worlds rolls around in 895 is the number all these Elite guys are hitting he is he’s gonna by the time worlds rolls around he’s goingon to be right there with these fellas yeah he is developed into a monster and yeah the world is just too deep right now and
It’s bittersweet for me because I like everybody love Kao and it’s weird to have a world championship without Kao he’s been the guy since we came back from from the the lockdowns and he was the guy I mean he was the guy before that he was the number one in the world
But he wasn’t at Worlds yet but he’s been the number one 93 you know outside of losing a chance but he’s beaten chance before he came back regained his title look better than ever he was just the guy and it’s weird to not have him at world having said that it’s
Bittersweet because the sweet part it’s not a bad thing to have new faces as well and new give someone else else an opportunity and a guy like Brandon he 100% could be a world champion he could be that guy and there has been a lot of
Hype on this young man from himself from his team and I am not opposed to a guy sticking his chest or a lady Bo being boastful as well I love someone who calls his shots and be like I’m goingon to do this I’m gonna do that Etc there’s
Been a lot of hype on Brandon and I’ve bought in and I think a lot of people have when he goes to Worlds and Marcela said if he’s 100% And we think he’s going to be he should be a fair lead ahead of the rest of the pack the thing is my
God did you see Goff hadlin had room and he ain’t flinching you see M K that video of K that n060 did when his boy is in his ears saying somebody’s got to be the greatest somebody’s going emerge as the greatest and when it comes to a
Cluster of talent like we have in the 93s somebody’s going to get pushed forward as the greatest and it’s not always somebody from our side of the world let’s see what happens I’m ex I’m crazy excited I can’t wait to see worlds in the battle of the 93s as long please
Everybody be healthy please stay healthy but we have enough 93s it’s like the 66s even if someone drops out it’s still stacked just I want all these guys to go which raises a question like if if Petri can’t go um has Gavin excluded himself from
That I don’t know I don’t know if you know Matt maybe have you have to look up on it this is kind of on the off the top of my head but yeah so um is Gavin excluded the short answer to that is no the longer answer is we would use his 93
Kilo total from Sheffield we can use that as part of our qualification system in terms of our alterate we have not put out the alternate list um I am privy to that information I am not going to share that or announce that at this time um because
We’re still working our way through it and combing our way through it but suffice it to say uh you know look we want all of our lifters to go we’ve got a strong team of 16 and we wish health and strength and skill upon all 16 and
Pray prayers of blessing over them for them to stay healthy you know because they all want to go and uh we don’t want to have to dip into the alternate pool but no this does not preclude Gavin um from being considered as an alternate but I’m not gonna reveal where he ranks
On that list quite yet got gotcha yeah and obviously uh without going into the list then who knows maybe I spoke too soon about like guys like Kao and guys like maybe we gotta wait till the alter list to come out and the thing with America it’s so stacked right America is
So stacked you guys could feel two te right and just remember this also Delan as well actually of course right Delany hit you know the world record so and and the selection criteria was based upon the world records on January one so Delaney having hit 100% you know he’s
Just let me say he’s high up on list so on paper anytime someone drops out the inclination is to oh let’s insert the person who’s in that weight class right so if let’s just say pathetically to your point Bri Ryan because you were saying if Petri dropped out or Petri got
Hurt or something would you know on paper sure yeah it makes sense hey let’s insert a 93 but our 93 may not be the highest um on our alternates list and so we go according to that because that’s the criteria was set forth that’s the fairest way to go that’s what everybody
Agreed upon and we’re not going to change the we’re not going to move the goalposts you know before before worlds so yeah for sure yeah no yep uh yeah if it might be 282 283s or two whatever the Hecks exactly um yeah interesting I mean I don’t foresee
Anybody but you never freaking know even around the world I hope though we just keep what we got right now because what we got like I already said I want to see what Brennan does I want to see what Jonathan does Jonathan’s story I want to
See waser do his damn thing I don’t want none of these guys dropping out so it’s like guys stay and Russ perk for God’s sake we’ve been waiting long enough Ash Bob if anybody pulls out I’m going to be very upset there are some guys we’ve
Been waiting a long time to make their debut um but uh but anyways let’s move it along to the 105s talking about Ashton Ashton came in slightly under the weather and nevertheless 941 without having to take all of his attempts um again marcelus on the podcast that’ll drop after this one but
He said Ashton wasn’t 100% healthy they want to see what they had on the day without reating it was his back so you could reag gravate something sometimes you skate through Jonathan garciaa massive back issues got all three squats got all three deadlifts everything’s good they kind of move forward like that
With Ashton if we can get a third out of you cool if we can’t let’s let’s back off let’s call it when we see it we’re going to know when the weight’s on your back um and as it were after a second squat decided to back it off and
Decided didn’t need his his final deadlift as well however um still finished with the unofficial world record 941 which is a nice little tip of the Hat slw warning shot to Anatoli Nova pman I don’t need to be 100% And I’m break unofficially breaking the world
Record now I don’t know where anatol is going to be at maybe anatol will be like yeah that’s the old record sir I’m coming in with more myself but I’m excited to see Ashton with USA across the chest finally at the world championship um Michael Davis performed admirably unfortunately gave away that
One its third squat finished the squat took a step back and a it is what it is and he gave it away and that was harsh that set him back um too far back that he was going to be able to catch up but Ashton it it would have took a huge ask
For Ashton to actually fumble the bag for any of the 105s to take it from if completely honest um Matt what’s your impression of the 105s Ashton and Ashton moving forward to the world championships in a word ecstatic um I love this guy I love Ashton Rus I
Genuinely mean that from the bottom of my heart I’ve been wanting this for him for a very long time as you know if you’ve been following his career uh he’s no stranger to competition he has competed um at an ipf World Championships before but that was all
The way back as a sub Junior uh in uh single ply equipment and that was in Hungary in 2014 so it has been a minute since he has been uh back overseas you know to compete at a world championship so I’m just ecstatic for him I was able or to
Help uh you know throw my hand in the pile and help him warm up and help um as I said help Marcel’s guys team craft in the back and so got a got a bird’s eye view there of what he’s capable what he’s like on on on game day and his
Demeanor and I’m just happy that he was able to get out of this competition and essentially remain unscathed right and to your point take what he needed to just lock up the national team slot and now we can put in some training for worlds and you know
Likewise like we said in these other classes I know that he fully has the utmost respect for anat and he’s not taking him lightly and uh you know we’re going to put our foot on the gas and do what we need to do it worlds with the objective and you know obviously be
Winning and and and then the numbers game you know comes after that but I’m ecstatic for Ashton uh I I think you know he did what we expected him to do and I expect him to carry that forth going into Worlds Adriana based on what you saw you
Got to make a pick and a to your Ashton that world I mean it’s got to be Ashton I think he’s the heavy f going in just given that he only took seven attempts was a little beat up going in and still totaled a chip over the world record
Held by Anatoli but with Anatoli it’s always kind of a mystery like you never know where he’s going to be he was injured at Euros coming into Sheffield like no one kind of knew where he was at and I think he loaded up a deadlift to
Beat the world record he did I yeah he did he came within one deadlift to break in the world record even even while being beat up from Euros so and he never he doesn’t really post that much like he’s kind of a mystery man so it’s gonna
Be interest interesting to see where he is but Ashton’s got Matt by his side and they’ve got some time Al be it’s not that long like I think we’re like 12 weeks out or something it’s not that long to recover but he’s got time to
Recover and the fact that he put up 941 while being beat up while only taking seven attempts he’s going to be the big favorite and I’ll say it was really exciting to see him lift in person um i’ I’ve seen him lift before but this one
He was like a mad man and he always is but he’s like super hyped up and I think he’s just showing a he wanted to shoot a message to Anatoli given that we all saw the Anatoli um call out like calling out Ashton which is kind of uncharacteristic
For him but it made it interesting and um I’m excited to see the two Clash at Worlds yeah uh it’s gonna be a battle he’s also a little light Ashton we’ll see if he G comes in a little heavier but for him to do 941 injured and
Light it’s a very good indication he’s the strongest guy in the room and if he’s got Matt handling him I mean I don’t it’s goingon to be very difficult for Anatoli to unseed him but Anatoli he’s one time and time again he’s one best lifter at several World
Championships he’s nobody’s fool so and I know Matt’s not going to be sleeping on him he’s not exactly a guy that’s gonna fly under the radar we all know who anatol is so he’s got his work cut out for him though but I want to see the
Battle um let’s take a look at the 120s here and somewhat surprising Bob Matthews weighing in at 106.2 that is the shortest of cuts to being a 105 he is literally just a 105 walking around did battle with Devin Williams um had some let’s say interesting attempt selection by B by
Bob Matthews he is a phenomenal talent and I know they they perform the way they train right and he likes big jumps but he had a 20 kilo jump from his opening bench to his o to his second attempt and he had a 32 and a half or 33 and a half kilo
Jump from his opening deadlift to his second deadlift it’s a little bit dicey because his top end deadlift is 385 his second attempt was 378.5 that’s within his wheelhouse but it’s close enough to the top end for your second attempt ATT and if you’re doing over 30 kilo
Jump if for some reason he had missed that and it was close enough percentage wise to his top end that number that that deadlift gave him that 97.5 was estimated quite a bit more than we think like quite a bit more than what Devon’s ever posted it was if he missed that my
Goodness the door would have wide swung open you take big jumps like that and I know that’s how he likes to operate and maybe he operates like that because he’s I only have so many big lifts in me not everybody’s Penna I got you but on the
World stage it’s G to get tough now someone might say Devin is probably tougher than the other guys at the worlds maybe I’m not sure you might be able to argue with that but as he gets to more and more showdowns he’ll back himself into a corner where if you miss your second
You’re literally cooked like you’re you you you you have to now have one on your opener because and the drop between your second year opener drastic when it’s 20 kilos for the bench press but if this is how he trains and he knows he only has top a couple top in
Debt uh lifts Matt I’ll throw it to you what do you do with a lifter this is how they like they they tell you because Jen Thompson used to do this if they’re like look at I only have two big lifts in me you know if you make me go I don’t
Know let me you you know where I’m going with this you’ve been around the game long enough and things change when you’re heated showdowns yeah let me just say this yeah a lot of the lifters on team craft as we’ve seen right as evidenced by Petri
Uh rusa and of course Bob Matthews if you look at their attempts they they favor uh large jumps and they favor this uh in many cases this highrisk High reward strategy and it is not my goal to change these people I don’t want to change who they are um by the same token
Worlds is a completely different animal than than paats than lifting at the Arnold than any domestic meat that you could possibly encounter um it is going to move at a blistering Pace they’ve already set the schedule we already know that they’re going to be eight lifter flights and these uh spotting loading
Crews at Worlds you know are like a Formula 1 pit crew they move so quickly so those flights are going to move very very fast and you you couple in the travel with that and so forth and the stakes and you know what’s at stake in
These meats and it changes things and so um that’s that’s a long way of saying that I look forward to to working with these guys and to collaborating with marcelus with these lifters and strategically installing game plans that that takes all of that in into account
And so we have to be mindful of who we’re competing against our objectives and all those things get factored in um and I’ll just say this worlds is not the place to be Reckless and and to take huge risks because the the single most important thing is to secure the W and I
Know that I can speak for Petri and Ashton and Bob that is at the Forefront of their minds so again not trying to change who they are but we need to be mindful of strategy and I’ll just kind of leave it at that so um Bob’s performance was outstanding uh you know
He did what he needed to do I think this was a closer battle in many ways than people had thought I mean Dev Williams showed up and showed out man he had a phenomenal meat totaling 955 and a half like you said if Bob had missed the that
Big jump on the second deadlift it’s like the door slings wide open but Bob executed at a high level he did what he needed to do he wanted to get out there and kind of like you know put the hammer down with that second deadlift and that’s essentially what he did and I
Think at that point kind of reading dev’s body language in the back he kind of knew like okay that’s you know that now it’s it’s too far so let me just put something on the bar for the third one and um yeah but Dev had a great meet and
Also I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention of course I I had the fortune of coaching Mike toir and Mike had a great meet in terms of coming back first time he’s hit that 900 kilo total and that 900 kilo threshold since he’s kind of come back after his injuries and also
Just want to give a shout out to Reagan Henderson man who um wound up beating beating Mike T on body weight right so I was of course in that battle and um and Mike T took 365 kilos on his final deadlift and re and Reagan Henderson kind of being this tweener right he
Weighed in at 112 so he’s not you know 105 not a full 120 he’s kind of this tweener um he came off after his second deadlift and knew that he had something big left him and I didn’t know that he had 27 and a half kilos so it’s that you
Know but we we look we put on the bar what we thought Mike had and what he could definitely make because we didn’t want to make it any easier but shout out to Reagan um he hit a huge deadlift you know with and and beat Mike T on body
Weight so that was just awesome uh for both of those lifters but at the end of the day it it was the Bob mastu show and uh really looking forward going over the worlds and uh seeing what Bob is capable of against you know some tough contenders presumably Tony Cliff from
Great Britain and um some Heavy Hitters so looking forward to it yeah I I am so grateful Devin big Dev came over yeah and and made this big Dev made this exciting enough it kept Bob honest it kept Bob to the point where when he did
Load up take big jumps it made the pressure you miss this you’re done you understand you’re done and when that is the case you’re watching as a viewer and a fan like oh my god he has to hit this right without that it becomes yeah whatever if I miss whatever that’s not
Fun you big Dev made it fun big Dev did his job he said I’m gonna come over I’m gonna push him and um and he got some Spotlight and he got some kudos for it I’ll Echo what you said about Bob I he’s like Ashton I’ve been waiting for this
Guy yeah we’ve been waiting for you welcome King welcome back or welcome just period not back um can’t wait to see Bob at Worlds and see what he does Adriana Bob said afterwards in an interview I did for white lights media with him 70% chance after worlds he’s going
To 105 and he’s going to clash with Aston Ashton question right now I’m gonna ask both of you guys but I’m throw it to you first Adriana who’s the favorite not who’s going to win who’s the favorite if they’re The Clash Ashton or Bob I think
Bob but it’s tight because Bob just put up 978 point5 and I’ll throw in that that also matches Dennis cornelius’s world record and that match is the highest total we’ve seen in the 120s minus rondelle of course so it was a great performance from Bob
But yeah I’ll I’ll say that Bob I think he’s gonna go to Worlds as a 120 because it wouldn’t make sense to come back down we talked about this like it wouldn’t make sense go to 120 you’re the favorite albeit you’ve got a strong cast you’ve got Tony Cliff of course the reigning
Champ you’ve got eten um eten El chair from Lebanon yeah Junior world champion and he’s been putting up some really crazy numbers I honestly think this this might be maybe not super close but I think it could be close than people may think especially if they don’t follow eten on Instagram
Lebanon’s not super well known as a powerlifting Nation but he deadlifted 42.5 in the gym now I don’t know his body weight but it was it was clean too and he put in his caption this prep is personal I will put Lebanon worldwide I suggest you bring your aame
And what is he taking so here’s the thing when us gets cocky and they start talking like they talk and I I like I I’ll bump it out there other nations that are prideful nations are not going to take kindly they’re gonna make okay I
I’m G to I’m going to reain on your parade yeah and at and um I’m just really excited to see what he puts up I think he he just AG out of the Juniors he was at the junior world championship last year and he won so I’m excited to
See what he puts up and then monim Mo he put up 9375 at um we’ll talk about it more later we’re kind of spoiling own podcast but he put up 9 37.5 in his debut to the class so he’s going to be eating into it gonna be
Gaining more so Bob’s the favorite but it’s not like everyone else is just at 900 kilos and he’s way ahead and the attempt selection is going to need to be on point and of course Matt’s going to be the head coach there but I think watching this meet where you talked
About the deadlift I think even the 20 kilo jump on bench was kind of dicey oh that’s 20 kilo jump on [Â __Â ] that’s and the fact that you had to make changes to and this is no disrespect like he did phenomenally but he had to make changes to adjust to the bench rule
First of all second of all 240 is matching his best that he’s done in the competition prior so it was just it was dicey and it could have made it like a big upset if he were to miss that second bench miss the second deadlift I don’t know it could have been
Dicey and Devon was right there but yeah Bob’s gonna going to come in as the favorite to win Worlds at 120 and we’ll see how it goes we’ll see if he can bulk up more but he did say 70% chance he cuts back down or Cuts back down he’s
He’s he weighed at 106 like that’s hardly a cut but he comes back down to 105 to battle that with Ashton on the biggest stage in powerlifting and I think I think he’ll be the favorite yeah to your point with the 20 kilo bench jump he moved to 240 he
Missed 245 like we were right at the top end we were it hard it wasn’t it wasn’t an easy bench we were right there at the top end I mean look 245 was too much 240 was that means he was right at the edge he jumped 20 kilos to the razer’s edge
If he missed that if this is Lithuania and there was just a small didn’t sleep as well time zone the travel whatever you do that at Lithuania and you you lose 20 kilos off the top that’s how you get an upset that’s how someone else etn
Or whoever is like thank you that’s what all I needed or Tony cliff and let me tell you something Tony Cliff beats Bob Matthews We’re not gonna hear the end of that one anytime I the first podcast I’m booking is Tony Cliff you don’t want to
Bob well you know what don’t worry about it Matt’s got that’s not gonna let anything crazy happen but if you know you gotta be careful man that that’s a sometimes it pays sometimes sometimes that’s not gonna pay off and Bob is a really special talent um Matt what do
You think here who would be the favorite if Bob Matthews and Ashton were to go head tohe head I mean I’ll pick Ashton just to be a contrarian to to Adriana really really for no other reason because I’ll just say this Bob is ascending at such a rapid rate and his
You know assuming all things are equal in terms of body weight right he goes to Worlds he’s gonna compete as a 120 and if he has every intention or a 70% intention of cutting back down it’s not going to stifle his strength because he’s he’s right you know he’s right
There now and so these two guys are so close I mean now the margins are rais or thin right if we just look at their PBS and we kind of match them up you know it’s like Bob is now gaining ground when the squat I mean he just squatted 360
Kilos so I mean Ashton you know presumably would squat more is capable of squatting more Bob has got him in the bench and then their deadlifts are close so it’s it’s so hard to pick between the two in potential of what might happen Could Happen hypothetically at Sheffield
I mean that you know again comes down to attempt selection and gamesmanship and would they carry the same coach I mean there’s so many variables that we could make an entire podcast out of that so um the these two guys are just tip of the spear athletes love Ashton Love Bob
Thrilled that they’re on the team let me just say this to the rest of the world before JN kangu chops the sound bite up and puts it out there okay you’re not gonna get any sweep talk from me or any of that kind of stuff I am glad the Team USA is
Supremely confident I want them confident I want them to come in firing all on all cylinders but you are not going to hear that talk from the head coach I respect every single country I’ve been to too many of these I’ve been involved in too many of these dust ups
And I’ve been on on the top end of some of these battles and I’ve been on on the losing end and so I know what can happen at World Championships it’s different over there and so let’s not get ahead of ourselves we fully respect all of the
Other lifters who are coming in from all of the other countries we we respect them we know what they’re capable of we know we have our hands full so we’re I’m not going to sit here and you’re G to get any of that clean sweep talk from me
You know are there lifters who deserve to be the favorites who who happen to be Americans of course but I understand what can happen and so you’re not going to get any of that foolish braggadocious talk from from your coach that’s not gonna happen how did you guys feel I’m
Actually looking for the speech oh here it is yeah that was good sh I’m gonna share it I’m gonna share it right now and this is this this video blew up yep it’s got a lot of people look at this is pro this might have been what etn is talking
About I didn’t hear what jiren said but I’m sure the Sabato boys are not taking it lightly either I seen the title of one of their podcasts was GB isn’t afraid of us yeah and I I didn’t I didn’t hear it yet because I’m doing five podcasts this weekend myself but
I’m sure there there’s some clapbacks coming but let’s um Let me show let’s play this clip so everybody knows um this is what our friend Jesus Olas no l said the world be this to know the United States of America is coming and we bringing heat [Applause]
Because this is the stuff that I feel a lot of us as little going through whatever we went through have dreamed about is to go out there and represent our nation right and it’s like I I’m I’m I’m still a new to the sport I’ve been competing for uh maybe
Four to five years but I don’t think there’s ever been this kind of talent to share the same country and represent the United States of America and I think that everybody’s on the same page we’re going to just roll all cylinders we’re going to go out there
And put our best fo for forward and you know God willing we get that sweet baby so who God willing we get that sweet baby it all of a sudden you see a bunch of sweeping uh sweeping emojis you know the dust pin Emojis all in the comments
Of it people are like I I I don’t know it’s got people riled up I personally like it I understand Matt if you in sports in general in even in team sports the coach tries not to because it applies pressure to the team it’s different when the coach does it it’s
Not a good idea actually coaches don’t talk big players say what they want but the coach needs to not it it’s not it so I think you’re doing the right thing but people are talking about Jesus like he’s The Unofficial team captain now because he grabbed the mic at that opportune
Time and said we’re going for the sweet baby and of all people it’s the strongest man in the world saying it so when you got the Hulk on your team throw him the mic and tell him to talk a little bit you know what I mean I wasn’t
Mad at that speaking of the 120 pluses um Ray comes back and and starts I mean he’s not 100% back to Old form but this is the best Ray we’ve seen in a long time Matt maybe you could speak to this one yeah Ray had a fantastic meat I mean
This was the first time that we’ve been able to put together a training period where he hasn’t had to deal with any let me say significant setbacks or significant injuries so this was the healthiest that we’ve seen him in quite some time and I I think that was
Reflected in his total uh you know he had a really good day uh went eight for nine I think you know um we were projecting about five kilos higher in the squat our top end for the day that we thought we might take would be 465 kilos which is
1023 um or yeah 1025 I should say uh we didn’t take that only because on his second attempt if you notice uh he almost paused about a third of the way down so as he started sitting he paused and I’m like what the heck’s going on
When he came off the platform he said that he was cramping and uh so that was kind of the rationale that we took into into his third attempt we just took that 15 kilo jump to 460 instead of going the full 20 to 465 bench press honestly that was on Ray
He he admits it that was just an error in execution uh the bar bar path and touch Point wasn’t right on his third bench I mean he definitely had the the the the 10 kilos there and then quite frankly he surprised me in the deadlift uh the third one was easy I think
There’s we we left some weight on the platform uh there but that these are look these are good problem they’re they’re not problems but they’re good you know problems if you in air quotes if you want to call them problems to have um you know we were we were hoping
That he could be somewhere around that 1050 Mark and you know had he made the bench we would have and you know squatted a little bit more we would have been on the north side of 1050 but this was a fantastic meet for him happy to
Have him come back execute at a high level make eight attempts build some momentum um more than likely his next stop is going to be the napf Championships which are in Arizona um and in August so you know he’s been kind of chilling this week kind of licking
His wounds and we’re getting back after uh getting back after it tomorrow and um yeah I mean this was kind of you know if you look at the totals he he essentially kind of ran away with it you know Pablo was there and uh you know Pablo missed
About four lifts and so totaled 950 uh and so I mean this was kind of Ray competition to to lose if you will um but just nice to see him execute the way that he did and so um couldn’t be happier for him uh you know that he’s a
Showstopper I mean when he comes out to squat you know anytime he loads up a thousand um you know it’s musty TV the room is on their feet and it’s it’s just good to see legends like Ray Williams and Mike tare and so forth competing at
The same competition it was it was great here’s what I liked about Pablo um he came in this and if Ray wasn’t 100% he might have have an opportunity to Spring an upset over a guy a legend in the game like Ray Williams so he came in this
Guns blazing thinking let me see what we got let me see who Ray’s got you never know Ray’s getting older if he’s at all injured there’s a possibility Pablo missed his opening squat jumped up 20 kilos anyways hit 390 jumped up another 15 kilos hit 405 and probably ended up
Where he wanted to end up in terms of the squat I’m okay with that as a matter of fact like usually jumping up 20 kilos is dicey but if you’re telling yourself because you missed the opener but if you’re telling yourself if Ray’s at all vulnerable and this is my opportunity
And I get a national team championship I could get a spot it won’t be the world’s but if it’s an napf whatever I got to make a play here you have that conversation with your coach we’re good it’s going to get risky I am willing to get risky
Hold serve this is where things started falling off for him though um in the bench press so we left squats probably where he wanted to be it’s in the bench press he hit 215 could not secure 501 227.50 despite two attempts and that greatly set him back um after the bench
Press going into the deadlifts he was pretty far gone back I mean Ray just because Ray had one of those days he he ended off the deadlift was there everything was there even a late charge I mean he needed ready to Fumble the bag
And not be 100% And then he needed to go 9 for n to Spring an upset and um left squats probably where you wanted to but after the bench rest pretty much any kind of heroic come from behind winds were not going to happen uh Lugo trist
Nar Rod had a nice little tilt resuming the Rivalry Tristan only this time in the 120 pluses Tristan got the W there Adriana what did you think about the 120 pluses yeah I mean this is one of those classes where they weren’t buying for a worlds team spot realistically um
Because Jesus had put up 1113 at Sheffield so if Ray was at his absolute best then that that could have been for contention but as we know Ry hasn’t been at his peak in a while and with Ry coming in it was just really great to see him as Matt said have some
Positive momentum like kind of be healthy at least and he put up a total um 137.5 and he’s been kind of around like the 1,000 kilo Mark which is a like phenomenal total of course but he’s been around that Mark the last couple of years so it was great to see him like
Bounce back from those meats and be healthy going in and that 1,00 pound squat or it was a little over 1,000 lbs but that was exciting to see I mean there wasn’t really a super big crowd because it was the last day but the crowd that was there had so
Much energy in that room for the third Squat and I guess for the session in general just because it was all the big boys they’re lifting a lot of weight but that squat that was really cool to see in person and I’ll just add in that um
Pablo he still had a um big 25 kilo PR in the total even though he didn’t have the best day like specifically in the bench he took kind of a big jump It’s kind of the same story as Jesus honestly like at Sheffield he took the big jump
And it just didn’t work out for him but he’s still young I think he just aged out of Juniors either last year or the year before and he’s being coached by his brother so I’m just excited for the day in I don’t know two years or so where we
Could have a big showdown between the two now Pablo has a lot of room um there’s still a gap between them but Pablo’s young he’s coming up and if we could have a clash of the super heavyweight Brothers like the strongest in the world strongest Brothers in the world that would be really
Cool with them probably what might end up happening is one gets to go to worlds one goes to North Americans one gets to there’s enough options now where they can both be on Team USA attack different you know whether it’s world’s teams North American teams one’s going ToBD
Rally and there’s other SBD events they can go to there’s enough there’s enough now for both of them to divide and conquer and they might not even I’m sure Jesus would love to see his little brother winning the US title if Jesus doesn’t do the US Nationals anytime soon
And he keeps doing U the Sheffield events so there’s enough events that they might not even need to clash right now Jesus is got a mad spread If we’re honest but uh I mean there’s other people in the world that Pablo can tackle like teamour from Georgia there’s other super heavyweights emerging that
Pablo can Clash with that Jesus is just too far ahead but Pablo could be there and then there’s big Ray and Pablo’s probably not Pablo’s went probably back to the hotel room thinking I’m not done with Ray yet you know Ray’s Ray’s B Ray just won’t go away though my this is I
If you’re a ray fan and most of us are you’re like okay man Ray’s coming back here you know let Ray go nine for n where’s his total at and does he have room here like like Matt said he probably did have a little bit of room
On that deadlift um I do like also that when Ray came out I can’t remember if it was just from Ray came out but Travis ortm the strongman who’s like a professional strong man like a legend in the strongman game they brought him out for North Americans for the big boys and
They brought him out here who’s bringing him out what is go cuz he’s popping up are they flying him out spe is he part of the that team of splatters loaders because they’re only bringing him out for the big boys yeah I’m not I’m not sure but it it
Gives us you know confidence and reassurance that if stuff goes side sideways we we have thaned him yeah somebody who’s capable right I personally shook his hand and said we’re all happy you’re here dude like you’re a he’s a massive man and if someone’s going to Tumble you want that guy behind
You yeah it’s huge you when you have a th000 pounds on another man’s back um and a lot of these guys are lifting some super heavy weights okay shall we move on into the women’s who won best lifter Austin Perkins okay that’s what I thought I didn’t double check it though
I was assuming it’s gonna be Austin Perkins all right thank you um any other notes before we move to the women’s by the way I was just gonna say one final thing which is just kind of funny for for the coaches listening naturally whenever I’m going into a battle and and
The and I do an invent of my lifter when and what I mean is is when they release the uh the numbers on lifting cast or or in case of when I’m at a world champion chips on goodlift and the openers come up naturally I’m looking at the body
Weights and the lot numbers and all that stuff never in a million years did I ever think that Ray Williams would have the body weight Advantage so I was looking against Pablo and we had body weight on Pablo because that was our next closest competitor and I need to do
And of course look I didn’t underestimate Pablo we knew that he was there we knew that you know he could look if we fumble the ball so to speak we could make mistakes but it was just so funny to look up at the board and see
That and say man we have the body weight Advantage like this we don’t have this very often yeah we don’t have this very often so just kind of a fun fact there so um all right moving into the women’s we’ll start off on the 47 kilo class um
Obviously Heather Connor pulled out and Jessica espanol despite not having opposition pushing her not 9 for n 422 kilos that’s a very nice total to be having in the 47 kilo class only turbo Tiff rests above her she’s got 12 weeks to try to cover
That Gap turbo Tiff is in the 430s after Sheffield what are you thinking here Matt Jessica obviously coached by the strength guys you are very close to the strength guys yep proficient proficient nine for nine PR total into the 420s within Striking Distance of Turbo Tiff
For sure turbo Tiff’s going to be the the favorite I mean she’s a multiple time world champion she’s the strongest 47 that ever lived right however Jessica is close enough and turbo Tiff misses Jessica goes nine for n turbo Tiff does not always go nine for
N is Jessica close enough to Spring that upset for Team USA yeah look yes I think she is um not going to sit here and guarantee it just like I said before you’re not going to get that kind of talk out of me um but
Susie and I were privy uh to to coaching um Jess espanol at at this competition naturally as you said we’re we’re very tight with the strength guys and Jason tremble Jessica had a phenomenal meet you know we look her her top end I’m not going to tell everything but her topend
Numbers we were projecting if we had to get into a dog fight with Heather Connor and of course Heather didn’t make it you know we were looking at probably a 427 is 427 a half 428 total with chips and so forth you know if she were to hit
All of her 3A attempts as we say um but uh we didn’t need that we did we didn’t need to stretch that far and she still put four and a half kilos on her total right her previous PB total I believe was 417 and a half she toted 422 because
She hit the you know the 182 and a half deadlift at the end and it was good because if this body weight it is hard to put these massive chunks on your total and so there’s but there’s there’s more meat on the bone as they say in all
Of these lifts and I fully anticipate J putting together a really nice prep and being right there and and I feel like we can go toe-to-toe with with with turbo Tiff where where’re she’s not far you know should turbo Tiff you know or Tiffany chapone be the favorite absolutely but don’t
Slip because we’re we’re right there and Jessica espol has a habit of executing at a high level and making a lot of attempts and so I’m really looking forward to having her um you know on the team in Lithuania turbo Tiff because she’s so strong yep she’s got a spread
On the other 47s if you could bring if you can make it close enough that it’s a dog fight and that’s what you need yep turbo Tiff does not have the consistency of hitting lifts that Jess does but it’s got to be a dog fight for it to count I
No I’m not I’m I’m preaching to the choir I’m talking to the goat game day Handler sorry the boat go day Handler okay but um if it’s close if you’re both batting around 4:30 on the day it’s only eight kilos away she can she can she could throw one that Jason trbl and
Strength guys gotta do their job um or I think it’s actually Tori Le perier is it Tori yeah they yeah they they co- coacher yeah Tor Co coach okay yep they co- coacher and look let me also say this we had we had land on going up to
185 kilos on her third deadlift we had every that was our projected third attempt but we took one two and a half because the 177 you know didn’t didn’t look as up to Snuff as we would have liked and so we said hey let let’s take the lwh hanging fruit here the lower
Number and just ensure that you have a PB total and wrap this thing up and punch our ticket and and move on so as I said there’s there’s more there I mean she’s capable of more in every lift and so let me ask you about her body weight
Uh she had posted about it in her stories and just on here it looks it was a little low yeah that was yeah she did come in a little bit lighter than we would have liked I mean she Jessica has no issue making weight that’s not going
To be a concern uh she’s you know and and conversely we know that that Tiffany shapon does have a habit of of cutting significant amounts to get down so that’s another you know stack that in the plus column for us as well but I um
Yeah ideally we would like just to be a little bit heavier but we’ll see what happens with that international travel um I don’t think she did this intentionally but yeah she was a stitch light and I think that’s reflected in her performance in terms of those top
End numbers because we would have liked to have taken a little bit higher numbers in each of that dis in in each discipline but that’s what happens when you’re a full kilo yeah sorry it’s it’s a big deal so yeah full kilo 2.2 pounds body weight when you’re that small a
Human being right that’ll impact some lifts yeah you get her back up to where she should be and um could be right there what do you think Adriana I agree I think Tiff is the favorite I mean she’s the defending Champion I think three-time world champion and she’s got the higher total
And she’s very strong like she’s got the world record squat world record bench but Jess is going to be right there especially if Matt said that their high end for the day was around 4275 that’s right there um with Tiffany and as we know sometimes Tiff doesn’t
Make all her attempts you could see her jumping to a world record squat and then missing it like even on her second or third um attempt and Jess doesn’t miss and I’ll add in that yeah she is eating into the class um presumably like given that she weighed at
46 and I know that she has been trouble like had has had trouble trying to eat up so that she’s actually at 47 because like you said the full kilo is a good bit um percentage wise at this body weight so she will have the advantage
Over tip of like eating into the class versus having to make a big cut and she will have the last poll um between the two of course there’s the Canadian who I don’t quite remember okay yeah or at least she’s got she’s got a big deadlift
On her um so she could be in that conversation too but between at least Jessica and Tiff Jessica is gonna have the last say so I could see her just depending on where or is um just loading it up like what do you have to lose if you’ve already potentially secured a Podium
Placing just loading it up see what happens and I’ve seen her hit some a big deadlifts in the gym so or Le’s coming out of the Juniors her progress is fast and if a firefight happens between number one and number two and they push each other too far that’s where the big
Deadlifter can maybe shake up if somebody starts faltering I mean she forced she forced Heather last year to pull 200 hos to get into third place just to stay on the podium yeah yeah and then o o went in the back and pulled even more cuz her progress as a junior
Is just crazy I also want to say how crazy it’s going to be Heather not being at a worlds yeah I can’t remember yeah holy smokes wait a second when’s the last time I didn’t have Heather Connor at of Worlds 2021 she missed um but but I mean 2019
2018 2017 right 16 wasn’t she at all those she wasn’t at 18 she missed 18 okay but your point stands like she’s it’s crazy almost always in the mix it’s pretty freaking crazy again like you know Sports keep rumbling forward right it’s it’s uh it’s just weird to see
Things like this eventually happened it’s just freaking nuts I don’t know anyways I’m feeling old let’s move on uh 52 kilo class wow Megan hbert a lot of questions around her coming into this she this was actually her 52 kilo debut debut as a 52 and talk about a debut she had
4503 instant contender in the 52 kilo class at the world stage neck and neck with Noemi alar she she’s not only a a Podium favorite what colors her metal is yet to be decided I mean she’s right up in the mix Megan Herbert went from Zero to Hero in the
52s not a I mean literally not a single data point as a 52 and talking to marcelus podcast hasn’t dropped yet but he was saying that’s one of the challenges they had with the temp selection he’s like I know what she is in the gym but I also know she’s never
Lifted as a 52 ever and they they stepped in slightly overstepped on some of her lifts um the third squat but he said I wouldn’t have known what her top end squat was unless we did now I know it’s between 170 175 all right well at
Least I know it’s around 172 which I got he needs something to gleam from than going to Worlds and be like I don’t know it could be 180 for all I know and that’d be a mistake but he wouldn’t know until you load it so this was good from
A standpoint of collecting data points did the same thing on bench loaded up 100 105 why not we don’t know we don’t know what you are at 52 compared to what you are in the gym 105 was too much now marcelus and of course you Matt know
Fine it’s between 100 and 105 cool we know though at least we know we have data points on this young lady and then the deadlifts um went three for three Cruz to a mass of 453 uh marcelus has got one Team USA has got one she’s special she’s she’s a special 52
And she’s probably too far back from Eevee but she’s right there with no Amy and let me tell you something eeve is not staying the 52 much longer maybe one more year Megan just arrived if she could hang in there in the 52s and keep this up this could be a future world
Champion she’ll have no Amy to deal with but she might be able to deal with her we’ll have to see how it goes It’s going to be some great Titanic battles in the 52s like there always is other people will emerge I ain’t naive believe me just like Megan has emerged other people
Will emerge but this is this is exciting to have a contender like her in the mix and the possibility of becoming a possible world champion moving forward um Adrian what do you think yeah I think this was a great showing from Megan they were precise on
The body weight she weighed in right at 52 and yeah even though we saw that she made weight it was still a question of how much of a hit does that take to her lifts like we’ve seen people do big cuts and their total comes way down but
I think this was still a PR total for her even though she had to make that cut um and she’s got marcelus by her side marcelus is I mean he did wers cut he he’s done many people’s Cuts he’s kind of one of the guys to go to in terms of
Cutting down and keeping that level of performance so obviously Eevee is going to be the big favorite going into Worlds just because like she’s a phenomenal Talent um having cut down but I think this would be a really good battle for the podium between her Noemi and then
Also Megan Lee Smith who put Megan Lee Smith that’s right she put up 4495 at I think it was New Zealand Nationals you’re right was sleeping on her right there I forgot about her for a hot minute thank you for getting that out there before this drops yeah yeah you don’t you don’t
Anyone M but the the spread between them is so tight like I think that’s like just five kilos between the three of them and that’s like nothing you know that’s a that’s one Mis attempt and Megan also the the squat was really phenomenal to see that’s just I think
Like three kilos under the world record squat so we could see a squat battle too between her and plume Deckers so it’s gonna be it’s gonna be exciting to watch and she’s also she’s not like some Junior coming in and who’s made just a ton of progress she is in the open I
Think she’s like 32 or so and she’s a mother of five2 yeah she’s a mother of five as well mother of five I think I think it’s five yeah I think I saw that she’s definitely a mother so it’s not like she just doesn’t have anything else
Going on and just solely focuses on powerlifting she’s got she’s got a lot going on she got too much yeah she’s just a phenomenal Talent um yeah and I also want to say before I throw this to you Matt uh Vanessa coming in on on third or sorry
In second and Jamie fiser had to miss her her third squat missed her opening bench and then miss her third bench so see she ended up falling back a little bit Jamie having won nationals before and Leah gold ring who came in roughed up all types of injuries and did a
Titanic really turned it around in the deadlifts surprisingly turning it around in the deadlifts and almost saved her day loading up for the podium in her final pull talk about Elite charge at the End by Leah part of a lion onor that was that was actually fun to see because
Just when you thought like well she’s having a terrible day she’s injured missing list all over place and all of a sudden deadlifts roll around and the other ladies on the podium are like excuse me uh one of us might get bumped off here so that was pretty exciting but
Matt what are your thoughts here because you’re G to be the national team coach you got one yep you don’t have a lot of data points what do you clean from this what are we looking at what what are you anticipating from Megan well this is an
Important data point to use as you said because our first meet at 52 barely made weight um I will just remind Meg and this is not you know look you got to make weight at Worlds and so if you don’t make weight at Worlds yeah if you
Don’t make weight you do not I repeat do not get to compete so I’m sure that she and marcelus will have that in check and they will have a plan in place and she will be good to go and I’m not gonna worry about things that I cannot control
Uh what we can control is uh you know our strategy going over there and hey I’m looking forward to taking uh the lady with the third biggest total of all time in the 52 I mean who would I rather take right not bad and we’re only behind uh Noemi by
One kilo there so yeah I mean um Megan’s got some squat prowess on her and and as uh Adriana alluded to you know there’d be a significant squat battle there with probably chips in play with Noemi and plume Deckers so that comes down to Lot number and all that sort of thing and
And uh yeah look if she can if we can squeeze out some more in the bench and and she has a good prep I mean I see no reason why she won’t be north of 453 kilos uh going into Worlds so just thrilled for Megan happy to have her on
The team and really looking forward to locking horns with these other ladies yeah it’s uh the 52s is yeah it’s an absolutely stacked division from all over the world now and two of them coming out of New Zealand so we see how that shakes up and all eyes on E corrian
She’s going to make another run at 52 but she’s open with it she’s not staying at 52 forever and her strength levels of 52 are getting so high she’ll be competitive at 57 when she goes back this is a different Eevee Coran and but anyways I don’t want to make this all
About eeve we’ll move on to the 57s um Kate Johnson lifting unopposed picking up a a six for9 day and grabbing the US national title of course the 57 kilo representative is going to be Natalie Richards who posted up a monster total at Sheffield but succumb to jaad jackup and that
Head-to-head jaad jackup turning into a bit of a world champion Slayer like we talked about before misses out at Worlds a check at Sheffield did it to Joy namani did it to Natalie Richards despite Natalie being the world’s best lifter in the 2023 worlds now we got to
We’re gonna go one more time at the world championship Jad jackup can she pull it off and become an actual open world champion we know she can’t she’s got the talent we know she’s got the strength and she’s even got the W’s over reigning world champions it’s going to
Be I’m not asking you guys directly it’s a rhetorical question because I know who you guys are picking but I can’t wait to see it I won’t turn this into a World’s preview show um but that’s that’s the deal with the 57s moving into the 63s and Megan scanland
Mother third in 30s Wy veteran 9 for9 day racking up the US title um and a 543 which is a monster title or Monster total sorry in the 63 kilo class at a pivotal time in which Leah babwa has announced she’s not returning to the 63s Cora gar has
Announced she’s not returning to the 63s and the pathway is set for Megan scanland now 543 she could take it right to the world championship I believe she will be the favorite if we’re looking at the European Etc she she will have heavy opposition it’s by no means going to be
A cakewalk but we all remember when she won the World Championship fell short of getting the Sheffield invite has an opportunity to write that wrong and get that Sheffield experience anyone who’s met Megan knows you’re not going to meet a nicer girl she’s as stacked a resume
In powerlifting as they get a world champion we love to add another one you got one here Matt now this was a bit of a battle between the strength guy Selen crumb a lot of hype on Selen the machine she took a lot of the podcasters off of
Her close friends did Matt did you get Tien off her close friends well I wasn’t on her close friends but being being tight with Jason I was kind of privy to some of what was going on behind the scenes so I knew that that Meg was gonna
Be in for a stiff challenge so how did you feel about you being privy to all this how did you feel about how it all unrolled I think look I you know and I’m tight with Kelly man who is uh from Australia per for per formotion that’s
Me scanlan’s coach and so um look I think Meg Meg’s nine beats seline’s nine at this current juncture so she Mega is just the stronger competitor at this point in time doesn’t mean that it can’t change it just meant that I think team tsg and Seline kind of knew look we we
Probably are going to need to have Meg Miss one and maybe two for us to kind of Steal first place here and and um but Meg um came out and executed uh exceptionally well going nine for nine and um I wasn’t I didn’t know beforehand but apparently Meg got
Really sick like in the last 48 hours I mean she’s talked about that in her stories on Instagram and so forth she got violently ill and was throwing up and and uh losing all kind of weight you can see she weighed in a kilo light
There at 62 kilos and so I think her last 48 hours rolling into the meat were not were certainly less than than optimal um but man some strategic attempt selection she had her husband uh right there Brian uh working with her and they they executed to a high level
And she made nine attempts I mean they they were really strategic really surgical she executed really well and she fended off the strong charge from Seline I think you know once Seline kind of missed that third squat I think that you know kind of really I mean then
You’re really in for some tough sedding knowing how how big Meg’s bench you know is and can be you know I think Meg’s bench is probably all the way back even though she didn’t bench what she had done before the rule change um you know I was anticipating more but again to
Mak’s credit they took what was there given the situation with her getting sick in the in the last couple of days so yeah so going into Worlds I mean look we’re talking about somebody who had 63 kilos has the Third biggest uh total at 63 of all time um knowing that Corolla
And and Leah have moved up to to to to 69 kilos um Meg on paper is going to be the favorite I mean obviously there’s CH Bernardi or Sarah ndi if she comes and and we’re not sleeping on anybody else join amanii of course you know so this
Is going to be fun again don’t want to turn it into a World’s preview show but um but yeah just really excited for Meg and also look excited to see the progress that has made I mean she has made some tremendous progress and I know
That she and Jason and tsg are going to get back into the lab and get after it and she’s gonna continue to push you know because I know that her goals is or her goal is to make it to Worlds and be a world champion as well so um yeah this
This was a fun matchup to watch but Meg was just a stronger Lifter on the day if she had picked up those lifts she missed Seline yeah yeah would have been tight would have been super tight but y not on the day Adriana what are your thoughts
On it yeah I mean Megan did phenomenally um given that she had gotten sick I kind of I was like is that my fault I I maybe I spoke that into existence I said maybe she gets food poisoning and she did but she did well to adjust given that um she had posted
Some of her lips that she had hit prior and I think she’ hit a big like 202.5 Squat and they adjusted really well saying like I know I’m not going to be 100% I know I lost some way I was sick and they went nine for nine and that’s
What you do like some people they come in and they think I’m GNA hit all the numbers I hit in the gym and boom this is going to give me this total but that’s not how it goes on game day you adjust and they adjusted beautifully and
I mean Seline like she made a ton of progress and she made it interesting to the point where Megan wasn’t just going to come in and be the runaway favorite uh so I like that she made it interesting and they both like they both are super firey um competitors like
They’re they’re dogs you know what I mean and Seline had made a post saying consider this day one of 365 so her goals are not going to change she’s still trying to make it to the world’s team so we could see potentially a rematch between the two next year or potentially
Megan will get into this later but she’s the favorite going into Worlds the Sheffield qualifying total I think it’s like 530 or so so I imagine she could hit over that um but she’s got some contenders she could go to Sheffield and then she might be in a situation where
She might have to come to paats to battle out with Seline or she might just leave her total say hey if Seline can beat that then she gets the spot so that’s looking ahead way far but it was a phenomenal performance on the day especially when we find out the
Background information that she’d gotten sick and really had to adjust the game plan here’s something that also take into account Selene is 10 years younger than Meg she’s going to have her day oh yeah got to hang in the pocket where was Meg 10 years ago she didn’t accomplish
Any of this Seline just needs to hang in the pocket keep working they were close Seline picked up a couple a couple of those lifts she missed we we’re talking a toe-to-toe battle she’s not terribly far behind and it’s it’s tough but if this was the if we took all those ladies
From from Italy and you know from around the world sleen would have been on the podium somewhere more than likely she’s she’s a Podium threat she be vying for the gold maybe and how good would she feel leaving on the podium at Worlds well she has the talent and and the
Ability to she’s got to find her pathway hang in the pocket your time’s going to come it’s all going to come to fruition you know but it’s it’s gut check time and also welcome back Britney suplicki who went N9 for n 470 came back from injuries has won titles and battles in
The past as well uh a veteran of the game and it was nice seeing her and she had a hell of a day um so happy to see that and are you guys ready for the 69 probably the battle of the women’s side holy freaking smokes um this was
Definitely the battle for the women side we knew this going in but Gabby Martinez rising to the occasion you had Chelsea savit Jackie I mean this was this was a close one Gabby Martinez though as Matt always says you go 9 for n you’re going
To be tough to beat 553 in the 69 kilo class and Gabby Martinez weighed in at 67.9 five that’s a big Advantage for her going into Worlds not having to cut not having to worry about cut I got you neither does gar neither does Leah all those ladies though not having to cut
When you’re traveling and you take a flight you’re going to retain water when you fly and and it’s a lot more difficult in those in tangs she could eat in into this um but she was under stiff opposition Chelsea savit was not going to let her usual world team spot
Go quietly right up until the last deadlift she was a contender trying to put herself in a position to force Gaby’s hand where she has to hit her third Chelsea ended up missing her third deadlift um Gabby end up going nine for nine and there’s a bit of a spread there
Anyways but until the end of the deadlifts it was tight you didn’t know if if Gabby was going to miss her hit and Chelsea was not missing not until the very end she apped the pressure she need to apply Chelsea is as hyped up a
Lifter as you get the war paint was on her face she’s smacks her face before she comes out the deadlift and there’s chalk all up and down the sides of her face and it’s funny we’re in the warm-up room and um it’s either a boyfriend or a
Husband was there back there and um she was saying you know people are asking me about the chalk on my face and I’m like I don’t put it there on purpose I legitimately I smack myself in the face to get myself riled up and then her her
Husband’s like yeah but it’s been an hour and it’s still on your face so there’s a little bit of showwoman ship to it as well let’s be honest here there’s application but there’s also show woman as well but um yeah great battles there Jackie staying close just four kilos behind Chelsea
Applying pressure um from the third position so she had to hit as well this was a great battle what do you think Adriana do you want to jump in here first yeah sure I mean the squat battle just on its own was phenomenal I mean you see six of their
Attempts in a row they all broke the American record on their second attempts all broke it on their third attempts and I think what made this such a great battle was the execution from all three ladies like it’s not it’s not one of those battles where oh maybe Gabby’s
Missing lifts and someone is able to Jump Ahead like they all executed to the very end to the point where I don’t remember who was going first between Jacqueline and Chelsea but they were both pulling for the win um now Gabby had not gone yet but her total was
Somewhere around 540 and they were both pulling to overtake that and force Gaby’s hand yeah so it was a really great battle um I think by the time deadlifts rolled around even though they were pulling for the win Gabby was kind of the favorite given that she had done
23 in training and she had the advantage of pulling last but I’m excited to see gabat worlds I’m also excited to see Chelsea and Jacqueline I don’t know what meet they’re gonna do I think Jacqueline had come out and said that she will likely do the SBD Raleigh meet and I’m glad
That they’re um coming out with these like big meets or the SBD mes so that these people who are such highlevel competitors I mean you put Chelsea you put jack on the world’s team they have a shot at hitting the podium similar to Gabby and I’m just glad they both and other people
Seline included um Devin Williams you know all these people who are worldclass lifters but they’re not going to make the world team they have this opportunity to have a meet in between you don’t have to wait a whole year before trying again or before you know showing out and having a good
Performance so I’m happy they have that opportunity and for Gabby I think it’s now I don’t think she’s going to be in contention for first place unless Corolla and Leah Miss some lifts which is unlikely but it’s a World Games year and World Games qualifying year and
She’s gonna be in a fight to hit the podium between her and between other LIF I won’t turn this into a World’s preview but she’s she’s got a battle in her hands to hit the podium Matt what do you think the ladies played it well the squad event was Sensational
With the record being tossed around and to Adriana’s point they played it well to try to force Gabby’s hand Gabby had the artillery though when it came to a shootout but they they pushed her they set it up The Pusher if they could have hit those final lifts but uh as it
Played out it wouldn’t have mattered no but look as as a fan of the sport this is exactly what you want you want three people who are really close a for eight right and it coming down to the F that’s exactly what you want right let let’s
Sort it out with the final deadlift and clearly Gabby was the strongest I mean had her signature performance nine for n for PBS every single discipline and she’s you know now made the national team and she’s she’s walking into Worlds with um the fourth biggest total ever
Done in the 69 kilo class and oh by the way AG the [Â __Â ] go is not going to be there so we only have to contend with you know of course only I say only in air quotes Leah bavwa and carola gar but as Adriana said I mean you’ve got Mart
Jenner clar perro Annie Nelson I mean my goodness you know I mean yeah it a murderer’s row here of of talent you know gonna be fighting for for Podium spots but I’m just ecstatic for Gabby she’s just a wonderful person it’s been a long time coming for her and just
Really really happy that she was able to punch her ticket to Worlds moving into the 76s and this one was a little bit I was it’s a welcome back moment for Khloe Dublin essentially she hit the bar earlier in the beak grp um and let me
Pull back up what she had posted here um posted up a 5485 which is respectable now kin from Joey flex’s Squad came out to 197.50 heavily hyped she’s definitely the favorite to take this but she would have to have an on day missed 212.5 and at that point in
Time I remember thinking and it looked like it might have been strength but you can’t tell Rock back on her heels on that second Squat and dumped it you know she had to get caught she had to get grabbed there and I mean if it was if
You miss a lift on depth or or a command or something like that that’s one thing but at a day when Chloe Dublin posted up what she did and so there’s a little bit of pressure there and on a day that you had Dana also in in the hunt as well
With a monster deadlift so there’s pressure there ended up not working out that way we’ll get into that in a second but there was possible pressure from different points and I asked kin back in the warm-up rope how are you feeling and she was very honest and forthright and
Said I am nervous her hype coming into this event massive influencer in the influ fitness influencing space not necessarily powerlifting massive influencer brought a lot of attention and eyeballs tons of hype on her coming from the Joey Flex Squad the flex crew which is heavily hyped tons of world champion Sheffield alumni
So there’s so much pressure on this young lady who hasn’t been tested in a sporting sense yet like this not like this not with the world championships hanging in the balance World Games after that Sheffield after that so much on this one performance and here she is in
The warm-up room being attacked by multiple angles here and she was honest she’s like I’m gon to be honest I’m I’m nervous I’m I’m feeling a little bit nervous and she’s like when I if I get the worlds who do I got and I’m like oh let’s talk about that
After because have you don’t look up I get the [Â __Â ] go right now don’t look up Carina right now don’t worry about that you don’t you don’t need to I was like she’s you’re right you’re right you’re right so you could tell her mind’s all over the place when you have this kind
Of hype on you you almost feel like I have to make it to Worlds I have to do this I have to do that so when I asked her afterwards what happened with that second squat she nerves got me you know lose a little concentration it happens
Rock back on her heels couldn’t recover form and she missed it comes back like a champ though and this is where if you’re nervous and something like that happens you it it can completely go off the rails there and you can never fully recover because your worst fear on your second attempt you
Start missing it if she kept that going she was never going to recover never going to make Team USA now she’s checked and you want to get chin checked now before you get to the world championships and you have monsters like Jessica bner I got the shito and Carina
Who are all world champions all of them are world champions they’re not afraid of nothing they’ve they’ve paid these dudes years ago and cranon somewhat if you will learning on the job well this was perfect trial by fire for her I it’s it’s a good thing that it all played out
The way it did now she can gleam some confidence from this comes back in her third attempt hits to 12.5 like why did I ever miss it it looked like an appropriate second attempt from her after that and going into the bench press Joey flex and the team knew she’s
A little rattled we regain form there’s no need to keep going for PRS pulled it back a little bit I think she matched her PR in the bench press went three for three now Dana is missing now we’re we’re loading we’re closing in on um Khloe Dublin’s total and they somewhat
Cru controlled it into the deadlifts um she ended up finishing off I think this is a a total PR for any ways 560 hit that 237.55 60 ain’t half bad um as of right now not likely to Podium with 560 but let’s see what happens by the time World
Championships rolls around she can grow off it let’s see what happens when they do unload on squats and she hits her first and second and they could load up her third let’s see what happens when she’s not as rattled and Joey flex and Matt Gary are like we can push the bench
We don’t have to do what she did a year ago she hadn’t competed in a while and they did the same number she did a little ways back because she’s a little nervous and you adjust to your Lifter on the day let’s just get the win like Matt
Says you know it’s not you don’t have to hit PRS all the time let’s match a PR at Worlds she going to have to PR if she wants to hit the podium she’s going to have to unload the clip uh so to speak Matt you’re going to be working with Joey but
This is going to be your athlete at Worlds it’s a I already said a murder reso in the 76s what do you think here I mean she has tons of potential she’s a potential at the podium but she’ll be an underdog to even Podium hey she under I’m excited to have
Her on the team as you said she get you know baptized by fire here and credit credit to her for missing on the second Squat and then riding the ship and not missing after that and and and that’s good coaching and that’s good execution on her behalf and she was able to you
Know as you said Ryan she was kind of fending off the opposition padding the total kind of knew the number you know Khloe Dublin set the pace there in the morning session uh with with a with a good meat and for those who don’t know uh Khloe is married to Shane nut and
Shane is Alexis’s Jones uh is her her coach so that kind of completes that Trio if you will um yeah and Khloe’s no stranger to competition like this and I expected that you know it was unfortunate that Khloe didn’t make the a group but it is what it is and so she
Just had how fun would that have been that would have been great right so but um but yeah but cranon came back after the squat and and had a good day and I’m and I know that there is more in the tank in every discipline and so this was
About her um learning about gaining some more experience and then using this is a springboard to kind of cat catapult her progress into Worlds and so I fully anticipate that she and Joey will be able to put more kilos on our total at Worlds and then we’ll see what we got
And we we know what we’re up against but you know we’re coming to so I’ve got faith in her and I’ve got faith in their ability to prepare and I’m looking forward to to seeing her you know putting together her best package when it matters most and yeah so excited that
Cron’s on the team um yeah I think kin’s got like and she wasn’t fully committed to the powerlifting in terms of the training like she she was training obviously but this is going to be another level for her I’m told in terms of going into the World Championships because she is
Traveling all over the place in terms of her job and now she’s going to be going 100% in if she could bring her total up into the 570s maybe even 580 100% she can end up on that Podium and if she ends up on that Podium I mean
She’s got a bright future this is year one for her doing you know from the Nationals to World’s route she’s got a lot of ground she could easily cover and she’s got Joey Flex she’s got you she’s surrounded by the right people so I’m excited and I hope she does well because
If you have somebody with a social media presence like that if she ends up doing anything in the sport collecting medals making national teams on a regular basis this is good for all of us and she’s actually you meet her back backstage supero approachable super nice um so she
She’s a good one for the sport as well I want to ask you Matt before I throw it to you Adriana and we start talking about some of the other lifters help me out here there was a lot of talk on Dana mcneel whom could have been and should have been a threat
And some of these attempts were questionable yeah is that is that a fair word sir you are the goat you help me out yeah I think look um I wasn’t privy to a lot of Dana’s training coming in I think we all saw her hit that big
Huge deadlift right before and on pound plates and we don’t know if she’s Squad first bench first what have you H Dana is a seasoned veteran you know she lives in Japan she’s travels the world she’s in the military she’s been to Worlds before she’s she’s done the dance with
Some Heavy Hitters and so she’s no stranger to Fierce competition there was just in my eyes some very questionable attempt selection she jumped seven and a half kilos from the first to the second one and then 15 to the third and so typically you know the progressions are either get
Smaller as you work your way up or they’re equal so if you take a seven you know presumably your biggest attempt that you would take from second to third would then be followed by another seven and a half kilo progression and when I saw her a second one at 195 that’s
Exactly what I was thinking I was thinking go to 202 and a half because I believe her PB in the squat or that would match her PB so I’m thinking hey match a PB there you know so that was kind of so when 210 went up on the board
I was just shocked quite frankly and then the same thing yeah the same thing happened in the bench press and so and when you miss a third squat on strength you have to understand that that’s going to fry your back and being a conventional deadlifter like Dana knowing that she
Can grind and so forth so that’s you’re taking away gas in the tank now for from your deadlift because you had to strain so hard you know because Mist lifts are more strenuous than maid lifts and so again we saw the same sort of thing here
In the bench press where she jumped five kilos from first to second you know 92 to 97 and a half and then mysteriously took a seven and a half kilo jump to the third bench which again would have matched your PB but it’s just it’s just
One of these things where it’s like it’s just some very interesting attempt selection and then by that time you’re so far behind the eightball that you’ve got to make some you know make up some ground and you take a big deadlift and it just wasn’t there but early on in the
Events The Squat and the bench are not the place to try to make up ground you need when you’ve got the big deadlift you need to go six for six you know you’re not a subtotal specialist you know the cranon is going to be significantly ahead of you so you need
To use all six bullets in your gun just hold serve in those first two disciplines and then play the game because you know that you can you’ve got the biggest pull and you’re going to pull last and so for me there was just some questionable attempt selection
There and it came back to bite her and so she you know wound up placing fourth because of it and so that’s that’s kind of how the story unfolded I know some Nations when you’re the coach if you’re if your lifter coming and nominated a certain number and after the World
Championships you’re well below that they’re they’re asking for a report what happened here what attempt selections did you do that you ended up for Dana to have finished off the podium was not the way the script was supposed to go and she was never really in the hunt
Unfortunately um but it is what it is we got a nine for n performance by Khloe Dublin which made it the entertainment we needed and hats off to kloe who’s a season veteran she is not dropping the ball kind sir um and I’m not saying it’s necessarily Dana I don’t know if how
Involved she was in terms of picking or if she was just the you know the loyal athlete who’s going to take a swing at whatever’s loaded but some of these attempt calls weren’t exactly it was they were there were some questionable calls because if you missed you were so
Far back or or just it was so far ahead of the pr matching it I don’t know it is what it is you can’t go back in time it’s look at the end of the day it is the coach’s job the coach can’t go out
There and make the lifts for you but it is the coach’s job to put the athlete in the best position to succeed and I don’t feel like that was done yeah and that’s fair enough and Jessica Kenny um beating out Dana to get onto the podium only missing one of her
Benches her last bench was only two and a half kilos so she stayed in the pocket and Jessica capitalized and this is what happens Claire’s ey missing some lifts here and there uh miss her third squat miss her third bench Mr her opening pole went up 10 kilos anyways and um and up
With 515 um what are you thinking here Adrian what are you thinking about kin what are you thinking about some of the attempts what are you thinking about the 76s as a whole yeah I mean I’ll work my way up um I had the privilege of commentating the b session when Khloe
Nut was lifting Chloe Dublin Khloe nut so that was really fun to see especially since she had kind of taken up Hiatus from competing she got married she went to world games and that was actually her last meet um I think in 2022 besides the qualifying meet that she had to do where
She just put up um a plate essentially so that’s why she wasn’t able to be in that a session so it was really exciting to see her take um American record squat American record bench and American record total um from the a session and
She did her job she just went N9 for n put up a big um PR total that was enough to play silver in the class so that was really exciting to see and it would have been more exciting if she was in the a
Session yeah um but it is what it is um like phenomenal job from her and she’s not gonna I mean she’s in med school like she she’s the busy girl and clearly she’s still able to make progress and it’s going to be exciting to see her
Future and then we have cranon and yeah the the second squat gave me a big scare um because I was like oh my God and that was before Dana had put in her um third attempt squats we didn’t know how her attempt selection would play out but at
That moment I was thinking like is Dana gonna pull off the upset here like it was a big deal but she was able to Rally back hit um as we said 560 puncher ticket to Worlds and I just think it’s so interesting and rare to have such a
Talented athlete who is so new to the game and so like almost clueless because she had asked you like who do I got at Worlds like who am I gonna go up against like do I have a shot for the title or what and that’s just like insane to
Think about um especially considering she’s only been competing for like two years and she’s she’s she’s such a special talent think about in two years here we are in two years it’s happening so fast she doesn’t even know who everybody is yeah exactly but she gonna find out
But unfor you gonna find out however she’s special man in two years for her to be where she’s at and we’re talking two years she’s lift she’s committed but not she’s not like a the shiko was doing sixd days a week six SPD days a week that’s I get
The [Â __Â ] go kin’s committed but her last year was not six SPD days a week my friend I mean she I I think crano will find a gear I think world is gonna light a fire in her she’s gonna get a taste for it and she’ll be like oh my God I
Want more and then if she gets close enough if Matt and Joey can get her on the podium and she’s like she starts doing the math what happens if I went to Sheffield this is what we need we want kenin because cuz two years deep she’s already here she’s got a potential she
Can make it happen she she can she can make a push anyways um it’s just get her on the podium let’s see what happens no pressure man but this for for the good of the sport um anything else we should say about the 76 is here no
Sir uh let’s move on to the 84s Tiffany Savage this is big body flex’s athlete also getting 560 had a banner 9 for9 day hitting PRS all over the place and uh Tiffany ticking the 84 kilo title of course Amanda Lawrence is uh the 84 kilo goat performed at Sheffield and has that
Spot Alisa tesler coming in second and Marissa Ruland coming in in the bronze medal and these ladies are going to have to work out which pathway they’re going to take um because yeah Mana Lawrence is definitely going to be in Lithuania but we do have other Pathways for these
Ladies like the North American championship and uh several other SPD events and then the 84 pluses wasn’t a major battle I’m not sure what some people were expecting Bona a phenomenal 84 plus but finished off with a 2725 squat which isn’t super crazy for her she’s got more in the tank
Left with a 660 total again she probably would have more in the tank and Alexis Jones also nine for9 performance and until the final deadlift somewhat in cruise control she has more in the squat she has more in the bench press those are big squats and bench presses but her
Top end she’s finished with 6 98.5 she has done already 721 and I think by now her strength is probably past 721 Alexis Jones is a monster she could cruise to an American Title and she did I am very excited to see her and Britney schlater go toe-to-toe at Worlds because Britney
Schlater is also up into the 700s now as well what do you thinking here Matt you got Alexis you got she’s probably got the most horsepower behind her but she’s doesn’t have the experience Britney has and Britney’s quickly gaining I’m not sure where Britney is but she’s a gamer she’s battle
Tested what are you thinking first of all make no mistake about it as I I will continue to beat this drum we are not taking anybody lightly we understand uh full well what we’re up against uh going to Worlds to um to tangle with Britney schlater and of course Sita from Belgium
I mean both of these ladies phenomenal talents um but we have a rare generational Talent of Our Own in Alexis Jones and just to put it in perspective um Alexis squatted 260 Kil you know and her PB is 276.50 so we’re talking we’re talking about a number that is probably below
What she would normally take for a second attempt and that’s what she finished with so she was essentially on cruise control the entire day she did uh you know hit a hit a 166 bench which by the way is a kilo over I believe the current world record and then of course
She loaded up and pulled a big deadlift at the end uh you know hitting a a PB deadlift but you know on paper she will go into world’s as the favorite and rightfully so but this will be her first International meet and I know uh that
She will be up to the challenge and I’m very very confident with Alexis and quite frankly there’s nobody that I would rather take to Worlds so ecstatic that she is on the team you got a team yes and really looking forward to seeing her execute look Alexis Jones executes
She does not miss I mean if you go back through her open powerlifting uh you know the the last lifts that she missed were in single ply you know raw she’s gone nine for nine and I believe her last six months or so so we’re talking about somebody who’s surgical in her
Execution and I fully expect that to carry over to Worlds um but we’re going to have a stiff challenge waiting for us when we get there and we’re looking forward to it Adriana what do you think yeah I mean with Bona um she was also kind of
On cruise control like she had said that she was just doing this meet for fun she’d been sick throughout the winter wasn’t really um looking to push it so it was great to see potentially like we don’t know where bonika is going to be a year from now but potentially a passing
Of the torch considering that Bona had been the goat of the class for so long and over the past I guess year or two years um the class has really developed into a battlefield and Alexis now is going to be a part of that with her Britney sonita and it’s gonna be really
Fun it’s gonna be a really fun battle and Alexis she went nine for nine her last lift so they had taken a big jump to that 600 lb Mark which she has hit before at Ron Nationals but she hit it a lot easier there and at this meet it was
Um pretty hard like it was a limit lift so in my mind for a second I was like oh has her training not been going as well but then I remember she took a big jump from her second so I think that was probably why and it was no lift at first
So but it was overturned by the jury so it was a little disappointing to not see her get that have that reaction on stage to her having that lift especially since it’s the last lift LIF of the day but it was overturned she hit just under 700 kilos whereas Britney and sonita hit
Like around 710 or a little below so it’s G to be fun and I’m just glad that I think legit every single class at Worlds less perhaps the 84s with Amanda is gonna have some sort of battle even if it’s not close like say between Austin and shell there’s almost no class besides
Amanda in the 84s where someone is just the runaway favorite by like a 100 kilos so I’m just glad that especially the classes at the extremes so the super heavy weights um in the 84 plus the lightweights in the 47s the lightweights on the men’s side in waser in the 59s
Every class has developed into something that you’ve got to watch um um you’ve got to see the battle or you’ve got to see waser if he can hit the Sheffield total and potentially battle with fetto and it’s just fun to see how far the sport has come because in previous years
It’s been like okay 84 plus is it’s the Bona show you don’t necessarily need to watch or a lot of people don’t watch but now it’s like a can’t miss battle Yeah and Alexis is right in there let me throw one thing out there um I’m glad
Bona was there too for sure uh even though she was in cruise control a little bit and substantially behind she’s still a highly decorated lifter and brings a lot of energy and it wouldn’t have been the same without her you you want these sessions filled so if
She wasn’t feeling 100% I am glad she showed up regardless I appreciate when someone like bonik with her resume shows up one Cavo give one correction I’ll give wasn’t a passing of the torch moment that torch got pass to Britney ler at Worlds and then Britney reaffirmed it at Sheffield she is
Definitely number one until Alexis takes it from her and within America all right all right all right all right that’s like how you talk you literally changed your go post with your hands you went like this all right fair and then we’ll make it Global we’re gonna have ourselves a
Good oldfashioned Tilt at the world championships and you’re right to your point with the 84 pluses the weight division’s never been this exciting I I was around for most of Bona’s reign as commentator and whatnot and previously it was just Bon is winning winning winning and she won and it it’s tough
It’s tough to get excited when you know who’s going to win before it even starts and they win the whole time through and that’s it but that is not the case now this is tilt there’s going to be world records in play in every discipline in
This weight class I mean with jul Tosi in the mix from New Zealand you’re gonna have that squat I mean yeah well sonita has got it now but I’m just saying these women I mean you’re gonna have four women squatting over 600 pounds again is just phenomenal and same in the bench
You know presumably Alexis and and merer from France if she comes you know possibly ping ponging the world record bench press back and forth and then you’ve got Natalie L live you know uh in the deadlift and yeah this is an incredible class it’s and it’s and it’s
What this class has desperately needed for quite some time so it’s going to be fireworks let’s take a 30 second break and give the highlights for the Euros sport um to conclude our March Madness for euros sport the Europeans with the Arnold Classic in the European Championship
Yep all right let’s conclude this March Madness with some highlights from Europe we’ll start off with the European championships not division by division but only highlights and we’ll start let’s do ladies first and uh I think you were saying in the 63s Kara Bernardi didn’t have the greatest of days 52.5 that’s definitely
Below her previous personal best and we would expect her to be hitting PRS but Sarah naldi from Italy able to capitalize and net herself to the 63 kilo European title in the 69s another of note performance Mark Jenner 540 Mart has all the potential in the world but
She’s been floating around that 540 range for a couple years now and we need to see progression initially when she wasn’t getting it um I know she was the favorite actually going in against Chandler bad back at the world championships and could have edited herself a world title thought that she
Underperformed things happened here and there like getting sick Etc but it’s been a while now it’s been a while now that I’ve been singing her Praises that she could be 550 and up she needs to start hitting that 550 and up because now we’re getting to a point you’re
Going to finish off Podium if you don’t let alone potentially win like she was in a position to a couple years ago it’s only getting tougher and tougher and tougher in the 69 kilo class in all of the classes Mar Jenner’s capable but she’s got to start living up to that
Hype we’ll see what she does in the world championship she does have a little bit of time uh but the 84s was a major batttle sonita let me give this highlight before I’ll throw it to you Matt 3 84 sonita cruise control picked up another European title how about those 84s kind
Sir the we’ve got two Juniors from Great Britain which are just absolutely unbelievable I mean Freaks and AOL love and Gian Azariah and and the two of these went toeo totoe and as you notice um if you’re looking at the results um it was it was DEC ided by body weight
And so I was very curious when I looked at the live stream I just wanted to make sure that the division of labor was was appropriate and it was because Paul Marsh was coaching one of them and then there was another gentleman uh coaching the others but this went toe-to-toe
Absolutely down to the last lift I mean AOL love um only missed her third bench at 107.5 and I know that I think she was coming in or she had reported in her stories that she was a little bit uh ding but you’d never know it because she
Totaled 5 183 kilos and so it was quite interesting to see just having these uh lifters you know um uh AOL love going five for six and uh xanna being six for six going into the deadlift and then both of them opening up at the same number and so that’s that’s kind of
Interesting and aov having the lot number Advantage having having the higher Lot number there five versus four um they both opened to 237 and a half and and it just you just got the sense in why ing their deadlifts they both smoked their their openers they both
Jumped 12 a half kilos to 250 and then that’s when things kind of began to reveal themselves because AOL Love’s uh second deadlift just looked you know at at my eyes significantly faster than than zana’s deadlift and so you saw xana just make the8 kilo jump to go to 258
And then aov came out and and wham bam thank you hits you know world record at 263 and so we’re talking about two two juniors who while they’re not you know yet entering into the realm of an Amanda Lawrence in total they’re certainly you know um trying to kick that deadlift
Door down and so it’s just really exciting to see two Juniors On The Rise going toe-to-toe battling it out um and just coming down to body weight and it’s all you could really ask for so that was a really fun fun battle to watch I would encourage you the listeners to go back
And watch the live stream because that was that was musty TV between these two Juniors you got to be careful entering into a deadlift battle with Erol love I’m telling you right now things have gone sideways if if it comes down to deadlifts you’re neck and neck and it’s a good oldfashioned
Deadlift battle you want a little bit of a buffer there because she’s got some serious pulling power both those ladies are phenomenal I’ll give a quick also shout shout out to Pal in the 57s uh from France taking the title um European title and Cammy from France taking the
52 kilo title um Alexandra aren arenovich from Serbia not having the DAT she wanted but Cammy former Junior world champion taking the European title in the open and anaisa in the 47s taking that title uh for the Europeans on the or sorry for the Italian team at the European championships and Leah Shriner
Taking a 76 kilo title I could at least I could do is um give the highlights in terms of who won what and team Italy if you’re interested in the team points clinching the European championship for the women’s side I don’t know if that’s an upset or what I thought probably I
Would have been leaning a little more towards France but all depends on who sends who and Italy sent their big guns and took it Great Britain coming in second and France coming in third followed by Germany and the Netherlands Adriana did you want to add anything or
Can we move to the men’s or what are you thinking here we got we got time don’t feel overly pressured yeah with the with the 84 um kilo class I’ll just make a quick correction Zana she’s not a junior oh sorry yeah yeah she’s not a junior but
She’s still young she’s still in her 20s um and the two of them they’re not on Amanda Lawrence level of course Amanda’s one of the best in the world regardless of weight class but with the progress they’re making they could be getting there in a couple years just depending
How it goes depending how Amanda does and it is a World Games qualifying year and I think both will be in strong contention for the podium so that’s really exciting yes yeah that’s true you don’t need to beat Amanda Lawrence to have a phenomenal 84 kilo career and you
Could be I me they’re knocking on the door of 600 kilos like not not right there but with the progress they’re making they could be there within the next year or two they could be there at Worlds I mean Earl loves a junior and and she can make fast progress for sure
Um yeah we’ll see let’s take a little quick Peak at the men’s side um Ivan winning Ivan campano winning the European championship in the 59 kilo class for Spain and muru winning the 66 kilo championship for team Italy Joshua Wright from the strength guys representing Germany edging out
Eddie berglin with 745 taken the European title and Alexan Erikson coming in third there Jen kangu in a fire fight with Team France Rambo um and of course enahoro in the mix in the bronze medal position and Owen Harvard just off a Podium Jens 8 23.5 Rambo falling to 7 97.5 and enaharo
Having a bad day miss his third squat misses third deadlift and he doesn’t have the greatest bench breath so you could do the math he loaded up for a crazy 399 but the Miracle Man ran out of miracles in the Rivalry between Jens and enaharo flip flock being back and forth
Who gets the wins continues I don’t know who’s going to end up on top of this one I guess we’ll have another rematch at the world championships and in the 93s a bit of an upset here Christian from Great Britain Ian dun ends up with 830 coming in silver on body weight to
Norway’s oh my gosh slon yeah sounds about right is that how you guys will say it as well perfect they got into a fire fight sled ends up winning on bodyweight and Great Britain’s Nathan gavo ends up with EO 2.5 he’s capable of more missed his third squat missed his third bench press
Miss his opening deadlift but I’m sure he’s going to Rally back he’s he’s got more in the tank than there ail Norland not having the greatest days taking the European title but hopefully he’s got more for us at the World Championships because he’s a lot he’s capable of a lot
More than 8 87.5 when he’s at 100% % Ben P taking a silver medal for Great Britain after that in the 120s Tony Cliff not having a great day as well but enough to take the European Championship with 97.5 of course Tony also can do a lot more than that and
Indie the one two punch from Great Britain Indie the other the right hand of that if you will ending with 895 but Indy’s capable of more as well I thought with his training he’s going to do a little more than that but let’s see what these gentlemen do at the at the world
Championship and Victor Vasquez from Spain took the silver medal there but there is a highlight that someone did go above and beyond what some people might have expected and starting to turn into a bit of a threat might be premature to say a threat to Jesus but certainly a threat
To the rest of the world and possibly eventually breaking into the 1100s tour coming out of Georgia 10635 and he missed his third squat that would have got him another 15 kilos tour with a 415 squat Miss 430 a 401 deadlift and a 440 or 2 47.5 bench press teore is
He’s starting to round off a little bit here he’s young fresh out of the Juniors just breaking into the open as soon as he hits 1100 what are we talking about how many lifters period have hit that kind of Mark I mean we got Jesus we got
Ray Williams how many me Bri on that off the top of my head I’m not even sure team or special can he catch up the Jesus at least enough to make him honest like big Dev does Bob hopefully it would be nice to see someone get close enough it’s going to take a
While uh what do you guys think in terms of Team War’s top end when could if he’s 10 63.5 and he could have had 15 more kilos but he misses third squat when can he enter into the 1100s I would say give him another year I would not anticipate an 1100 kilo
Total coming from him at Worlds specifically because of the eight lifter flight um I mean that’s that’s going to wear heavily um pardon the pun on these bigger heavier lifters that’s that’s not a lot of time to recover between lifts so I don’t anticipate him hitting an
1100 kilo total you know at Worlds respectfully but certainly within the next year I mean again add in that other squat we’re talking 1078 and a half and with the you know the types of attempts that these big lifters take these heavier lifters you know one one squat
One deadlift here and there we’re talking 15 20 kilos often times so he’s not far he’s not far and that’s a he’s coming he’s he’s coming because there’s only been two people to do it Jesus and Ray is that it okay yeah yeah je WEA
Total 1070 so he’s he would be the next closest in terms of total R think about that he’s coming quick man what do you think adri yeah I mean he’s super young he’s making a ton of progress like it’s I I agree with Matt I don’t think he’s gonna hit 1100
At Worlds um I mean I just thought with the the gap between the two there’s only like 12 weeks or so but I didn’t even think about the eight lifter flight that’s going to take a hit but he’s making a ton of progress and he’s not
There yet but he is making it so that Jesus he he can’t have a really bad day like I think at Worlds before he’s he’s I think the first Sheffield qualifying year so 2022 he missed the mark actually on the Sheffield qualifying total and I think
It was under it was like 10 something I don’t quite remember but he can’t have a really bad day and as Matt said these heavier lifters take those bigger jumps and we kind of saw Jesus get burned by that at Sheffield took a big jump on his bench wasn’t really able
To recover after that so teo’s making it at least a bit interesting where Jesus isn’t gonna come in and just cruise control just hit the Sheffield qualifying total um well I don’t know exactly where it is but he has to be on his game and I’m sure that he will be
Especially coming off of Sheffield where he’s gonna kind of want revenge off of that but even if not for this worlds I think like Matt said moving forward next year at least yeah no longer are we going to be talking about just comeing and you’re playing with your food tour
Is going to keep them honest and if you come in and start missing lifts t- more could spring an upset that’s all we want tour is not going to press you and all of a sudden it’s a toe-to-toe battle it’s not going to be a showdown but give
Us somebody who needs to keep you Hest that if you take a big jump and Miss well will the whole thing unravels just like Bob with big Dev if Bob had missed those big jump the seconds the whole thing unravels he’ll that’s keeping you honest um as opposed to you know the
Opposite there also want to say serinaldi w best sfter and uh for the men’s here juren King Gamu W best lifter for team Britain I could also give you Britain on the men’s side won the team award Spain coming in second France coming in third Italy fourth Sweden
Fifth any other highlights before we move into the Arnold UK yeah I’ll I’ll throw in that um Ivan in the 59s I was kind of um looking to see if he could get back to the 600 kilo total that he’s previously hit but he was a a bit under
And depending who shows up at Worlds like we could see a really good down between not waser because of course waser is going to be ahead we don’t know where fedo is going to be if he shows up but potentially a battle to hit the podium between him um ishtiak from Great
Britain who’s been his trading’s been going really well and quu N nio who is American but he’s going to be under USVI we we’ll see yeah it’s going to be a battle to hit that podium in the world games year no less um let’s take a look at
The Arnold UK and in terms of the men’s side CH really stole the show I mean we’ve talked about it a couple times here but 8:15 shell is really become a pain in the ass for Austin Perkins um in the last three months he’s taken the 74 kilo world record from 790
All the way up to 8:15 jumped it 25 kilos in counting now and that’s money money out of the bank account for Austin Perkins conceivably at Sheffield God knows what shell is going to do at the World Championships he’s got another three months to work upon probably not another 25 kilos but
Damn if he does this is incredible he’s making crazy progress in a few months at 35 years old um if he could keep this up but even if even if he doesn’t keep this up he’s already put a massive Dent by hiking up that that world record another
25 yards down the field yeah and I also you know let me also add this about chel backin so just to just to give him some more flowers credit to him for actually making weight for this competition right because this is on GL points so he
Didn’t have to come in there I mean he was he was the heavy favorite he could have easily said n you know what I’m just gonna weigh 75 weigh 76 whatever do my thing you know um and and cash a check at the end of it probably still
Would have won even with an 850 15 or 820 kilo total you know weighing a kilo over the limit but credit to him for making weight and then you know putting these this record on the books and making it count so I just I mean that that just shows the level of discipline
From him and of course the level of execution and so this guy is just a legend in every single way and I’m excited to see look if there’s got to be somebody who’s gonna do it right to push the total up before worlds let it be
Chel backin right yeah I mean he’s just he’s staying in the Stream of consciousness of all the powerlifters worldwide for the 74s so I think it’s fantastic and I love can’t wait to see him again the world who have saw this guy coming yeah just he just reemerged
Out of nowhere a blast from the past and literally is the king of the entire sport is now got to deal with this freaking guy who’s storming this the countryside of his kingdom it’s like my friend how many more yards are you to take of my kingdom that’s 25 more yards
You took from me um I don’t know we’ll see I I’m very interested in seeing what he does at the World Championships like we previously said representing uh Great Britain uh omakin hopefully I’m pronouncing that right yeah Britain’s omakin omakin thank you omakin Britain’s other 83 kilo lifter
Who finished with 825 but came super duper close to 840 money mo with a 9375 money mo weighing in at 111 I’m not entirely sure if he’s staying 120 or if he’s going to cut to 105 this is just him not cutting I’m not sure I might ask
Him maybe he’s bulking up into 120 and he’s never looking back he’s close enough to still make 105 six kilos isn’t crazy I would have to I’m gonna you know what let’s put a pin in that one and let me I’ll ask him um at some point and
Update the listeners but now I’m interested Janis Buu France is 83 810 a respectable um 83 kilo total as well it’s getting more and more common for these lifters to go over 800 kilos and at the World Championships we’re going to have a slew of L lifters 800 kilos
And up and yanis has got a big deadlift himself he’s taken the deadlift world record previously and a huge showstopper 35-year-old 105 Dylan Sanchez from England 391 a world record massive deadlift for a 105 then loaded up 411 which is the biggest deadlift we’ve ever seen in ipf history bigger than
Jesus this is Jesus olar’s record and he gets it to his knees and and this wasn’t just a tug oh sorry guys I’m just having fun here just whatever this was a legitimate attempt this this was legit he got it to his knees maybe even a little above um a freaking dead the
Phenom the likes of which if if he can continue down this pathway he’s like an A horo and he pulls conventional though so he’s going to get a lot more love if he could keep this up what do you what do what do you guys think about the
Men’s side here in terms of the Arnold UK go ahead Adriana you could start okay um yeah I mean you already harped on a ton of the lifters but shell really going to make worlds exciting as we’ve said throughout the podcast and AD they I’m just really hoping that he gets on
The world’s team spot and Jen does too and I that would be a I mean they’re only like two kilos apart or one and a half kilos apart and Jen I haven’t listened to the podcast yet but he came on Sab though and said are you the
Number one lifter if yeah if I wasn’t there um which is an interesting talk like I think had even lifted after um Juran these competitions were occurring at the same time but I think ad had lifted like the day or two after and he takes the number one 83 spot in Great
Britain also takes the number one spot on the men’s side in general in terms of good lift points so um like big performance there especially since he’s only been competing since 2019 so he he’s got experience in him but not like these some of these guys like shell God
He’s been competing for so long um and he’s making great progress so I’m excited to see a showdown between the two whether we see it at at Worlds or if added doesn’t make the world’s spot then at British Nationals and it’s not going to be just Runway favorite for Jens to
Have that spot and yeah just going down the list uh Abdul money moo that’s a big PR total for him it’s a 37.5 kilo PR total and I think he has said he’s he’s um committed to the 20s I think he has but I’m I’m not completely sure I think
The cut might have been tough for him into the 105s go ahead Matt oh no I was just gonna say I was yeah I mean I agree with you he talking about Mo he he had the meat of his life and if you watch
That live stream I mean he was in he was in in in rare form and in top form and looked happy and we all know how energetic and charismatic he is on the platform I mean he carried this body weight so well I mean he looks like a
Freaking bodybuilder as is you know what I mean so he just came in there and made lifts and just executed like I mean this this is his signature performance I mean he he knocked this thing so far out of the park and the and the body weight
Suits him well on his frame he can accommodate it well and I think yeah I see no reason I mean look you know he should be happy lifting at this body weight and just continue to pack on some kilos I mean he out totaled what
Tony Cliff did at at uh at Europeans and that’s no disrespect toward Tony Tony knows how much I I love him I’m just saying that this was a phenomenal performance by Mo and it just looks so natural everything the lifts just came so smoothly I think the only lift that
Was you know a little bit of a struggle was the last bench you know took a little bit to lock out but just a fantastic performance by Mo just really excited for him and um in terms of the discussion with between AD and Jen it’s tough to
Sub plant Jen when he’s the national champ the European champ best lifter at Europeans like yeah yeah it’s tough to I don’t think they could bump him maybe an addition as well as and I would love to see both those Brits and up in the 83s because I think both could the the
Selection is weird um yeah because I think added didn’t do the selections competition another I think both of them could get on I think it’s just up to Paul Marsh so I would I would love to see them both on yeah I think it looks like Adda did do the British selections
Competition but he competed he didn’t he didn’t make weight he missed weight that’s what it was he weighed in like2 over exactly so it makes it kind of um sticky for the head coach to put him in right he’s definitely not going to bump JN
Now the I don’t think he would bump JN but I just want to see both of them in 100% 100% all right let’s take a look at the the women’s side I get the shito checking in with a 5 99.5 total um I mean for her I’m expecting more in this the world
Championships as a 76 the scales I’m told were slightly off I don’t think there’s any official statements but this is what’s rumored so if you’re looking at the results and you’re wondering why she’s at 69.8 eight um but she said she’s going up to 76 she’s actually heavier than that Bobby
BS looks like 53.2 some people in my DM saying is Bobby pulling an Eevee Corgan she’s not so 4825 is a 57 is probably whereabouts you would see her Joey namman again she’s not returning to the 57s she’s probably a full flight a full-fledged 63 but she weighed in at 58.3 but
On her end um em Martin from France in the 52 kilo class with a 450 I don’t know with the scales if she was under 52 or a small 57 I think typically she’s a 57 but she has competed in 52s before I think she’s
Kind of in between as a 52 with the scales yeah as a 52 450s right up there Podium threat it’s a 57 you’re not getting to the podium or probably top five I don’t know so take it for what it is but listus we know this one’s easier because she’s 84
Plus with a 67.5 she would really benefit from a 90 kilo class I know uspl has a 90 kilo class I know USL is trying to make a move into Ireland listus don’t you [Â __Â ] dare leave us don’t you [Â __Â ] dare kid I will be all
Up in your DMs watch yourself um we’re going to see you at Worlds but I I man I love list this I think we all do 22 years old she’s an absolute Phenom super strong I want her to I don’t know what she what she could do
With herself she’s she’s I don’t think she can ever gonna is going to make 84 way too small for 84 plus but even doing she’s found a space yeah she’s making a Space of her own she’s collecting tit and and putting on a show and everybody loves
Her let’s see what she does but um do you guys want to add anything there no I don’t think there’s anything to add I mean you nailed it Ryan I mean and list is talking about her for just a second she did put I mean 50 pounds on
Her total 22 and a half kilos up from her previous best performance and this was just outstanding I mean she went nine for n and made some attempts that she’s missed in the past and when you do that your total you know reflects and so she had an outstanding meat really
Excited to see her do well like you said she’s kind of in this no man’s land of Flink she’s a tweener you know what I mean so but anyway just keep yeah like you like you said Ryan stick stick with us keep lifting keep getting stronger um
Agata put a couple kilos on that deadlift you know we saw her set the world record deadlift um in the 69s um at at Sheffield and now she tacked on just a little bit of kilo um so it’s going to be really interesting again not a preview show but
Really interesting to see coming down at Worlds with Carina you know so that’s gonna be a battle for the ages I believe um yeah egot to be backtack essentially 600 I mean this is 5 99.5 back to back she’s consistent now now she’s consistent and this is
Probably Cru control for her because she did it as a 69 now she’s a 76 and she’s still doing it when Worlds comes around she’s need a heck of a lot more this is going to be a hell of a battle between her and Carina what do you think uh there
Adriana yeah um I think you both did well not too much to add but Agata it’s just crazy to see her compete so often and do so well regardless like I mean this is just a month after Sheffield and um I think I’ll just throw in there with
With Bobby I was one of those people who I I thought she was going down to I was like is she pulling an eeve to Eevee is she gonna go against Eevee because that would that would be great but she’s staying 57s and we keep saying this
Point but it keeps being revent it’s a um it’s a World Games year and she hit a big deadlift like a big deadlift for her previously she’d been around like 182.5 185 and she went nine for nine here and hit 190 um so she’s going to be in fight for
That Podium spot given that J and nadle are kind of a step ahead but she’s gonna be in a battle for that third place position there it is I think that should just about do it I don’t even know how long this freaking episode is I know we
Took a short break but we’re pushing close to four hours so God bless anybody that stuck it out to the very end of this and it hurt us all through guys thank you for doing this recap with me um this was huge I swear to God my entire weekend was nothing but
Podcasting I did five podcasts and one of them’s three hours this one’s da near four this is all I did but it’s fun man I could do this all day all night so thank you guys for coming on Adriana and Matt I’m glad I got to see you guys in
Person and um I see you guys both out worlds Adrian you got to figure out a way I gotta find a way gotta find a way we’ll get you there somehow someway but we’ll keep in touch I like I like the podcast we’re doing we got to get Mike
Back and we’ll we we’ll continue doing more crossover uh podcasts like this one Al righty until next time everybody who’s listening please do subscribe both to this and future of powerlifting and give us high ratings both king of list and future of powerlifting and until
Next time sixpack lapid at 6 up and we are out