News, The Presidents Blog
A/BPU SuperMasters & The Bomb Squad at the FitXpo, NEC, Birmingham – Masters do it better……
Nov
There is life after 40!
The past weekend A/BPU ran its first ever Masters-only competition at the NEC FitXpo. Granted, we had few young ones in the Bomb Squad equipped bench challenge, but apart from that it was strictly Masters age lifters only. The winners of each equipment class were decided on coefficient of age, bodyweight and weights lifted, and some of the efforts were well above what you see even in Open age lifters doing!
How does 900kg total, 200kg+ female deadlift, 700kg raw naked knees total, 240kg raw bench by a master lifter, or a 175kg bench and 500lbs deadlift at 70 years of age sound! And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Most of all, the lifters had a bundle of fun, and the atmosphere was (mostly) drama free and relaxed. The lifters seemed to really enjoy the experience, and we had an unprecedented amount of thank yous and handshakes. It all makes it worthwhile, so thank you for the kind words and cheer!
A very good amount of masters signed up for the first ever Supermasters Challenge, and next year we hope to break the 100 masters lifters barrier. That would mean a lot of fake hips and pain killers in one competition!
The staff, many of them accomplished masters age lifters themselves, were absolutely amazing. A huge shout out to everyone who came to help, whether spotting, loading, refereeing, working the table or doing weigh-ins. I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as the lifters did! These pictures by our beloved Shotslikesumo show some of the action, but you have to be there to experience it!
Last but not least a special shout to the organisers of FitXpo and NEC/FitXpo staff. Many people (us included) thought that pulling a successful event in NEC this time of the year with relatively short notice would be impossible, but the expo was very much a success. The hall was full of stalls and a good amount of visitors found the exhibition. So Darren and his team, big well done and looking forward to the brand growing!
What about Supermasters 2025? We do not know yet, but it seems that the demand for the meet is there, so keep your eyes peeled! As soon as we know, you will know!
