As we inch towards Nationals in three weeks we participated as a team in the two day WSO championships at Cypher Health and Fitness in Richmond. I was incredibly impressed by the effort and efficiency that Leslie Macedo and the Cypher crew showed throughout from set up to take down. It was incredibly refreshing to go to a new venue that was so central and had so many places for people to relax and gather themselves after weigh ins and before. The layout of the gym was perfect!
The groups who lifted for Hassle Free were split up by days. On Saturday the Youth and Juniors competed followed by the Senior lifters on Sunday.
The Youth lifters started the weekend off in a bang. Everett Lee, Meleoni Afu and Kayden Doherty, all 7 or 8 years old made five out of six lifts and showed great poise on the platform. This was very encouraging to all our other lifters that followed and gave each and every 13-under lifter confidence. The rest of the 13-under crew lifted quite well highlighted by the two 64 kg women Alyssa Hines and Gianna Vanhofwegen who also both went 5 for 6 with personal bests! Alyssa clean and jerked 62 and Gianna 74 to take the top two spots in their class. It was incredibly gratifying for us to see them lift together before Nationals. Gianna also broke a 9 year record in the total and tied the snatch and clean and jerk for her age group and weight class.
The 14/15 age group followed where our 3 National Medalists, Bret Tom, Massimo Shinzato and Elliot Leet, came ready for some personal bests based on their training. Their training proved to be correct as Bret had a lifetime best snatch at 71 to win and Massimo and Eliiot clean and jerked 100 and 93 respectively all for Gold! These young men are all making massive improvements as they get ready for high school in the next couple of years.
The 16/17 women did not disappoint either, Sienna Lo grinned out a 3 for 6 and our Youth World veteran Jade Morales went a perfect 6 for 6 at a slightly higher bodyweight in preparation for a possible Junior Worlds appearance in the fall. Sienna had a tough start, missing her first two snatches but rallied on her third and secured a possible podium spot with a beautiful last attempt. She executed a routine 73 and 75 kg clean and jerk before missing the jerk at 77. She has been working on those jerks for this training block and I believe it really helped her confidence at the start. Jade had a great day taking bigger jumps in the snatch going 60 in the warm up room to 64, 67,69 on the platform. The 4/3/2 kg jumps were perfect for her rhythm and I believe her emphasis on overhead work in her program really helped. She followed that up with 3 great Clean and Jerks to end up with 2 personal bests of 69 and 89 which broke 8 year old records from the WSO region. That was a great way to end day 1.
Day two was just as productive as all the masters and college kids lifted, highlighted by Jeffy Li, Jiwon Lee and Aiden Kung who are relative newbies to the sport and all achieved competition personal records!! This group of college men along with seasoned pro Seth Tom who went 6 for 6 as he slowly tunes back up from an injury and our Master Lifter, Chris Duerrmeier rounded out an incredible day! Everyone left with goals achieved and it was a fantastic collaboration The only woman we had lifting went 6 for 6 and deserves a ton of credit for all her improvement. Monica Yuo improved on all her numbers and was so much more composed in comparison to her last meet. She had incredibly consistent movement and performed admirably.
The reason we, as a team always participate in a formal or in house test event before Nationals is to expose our lifters to different environments and stimuli before their biggest meet of the year! Also we are true believers in the idea that wether the meet goes well or poorly everyone, coaches included, can benefit. You have a good meet, keep pushing, and average meet, find one thing to fix, a terrible meet (doesn’t happen all that much) a possible pivot opportunity for the next three weeks.
I believe whole hardily that our athletes walk away from these experiences with a wealth of feedback to take home for their next step!
Till next time!