Our First Ever Northern Ireland Powerlifting Qualifier is a Wrap!

First ever Northern Irish qualifier is a wrap!

This Sunday A/BPU held its first ever qualifier in Belfast. This was an especially important competition for Emma, being born and bred Belfast girl she has dreamed of running one ‘back home’ for years. It was a small competition, as first meets in new areas tend to be, but filled with big atmospehere and big lifting!

Some of the highlights were the Goligher couple taking platform together, finishing with Geraldine’s British record 400lb deadlift, Abdul from Boyneside pulling 275 as 80kg teenager, our own Pete Tryner from England casually deadlifting 315 and Sean Egan all the way from South Africa returning to platform with a standout performance!

Firs timers were out in droves, everyone performing well and qualifying. Among thehe first timers were Michelle and Felix, giving it all they had in the deadlifts, Alex Neilan having a learning day on platform and qualifying for Powerlifting Games, Mark Nugent who smashed the British bench record by over 20kgs.

The standout first timer was Ballynahinch rugby star Paige Smyth; first timer who smashed the British junior total record and had more in the tank for every lift.

The Reform gym’s own lads were the ones stealing the show, especially Stevie Gordon got the whole crowd going as he returned to platform in bench only after a big knee injury just 6 months ago.

Sammy and Neal showed the excitement of equipped by making the spotters work, and finally Big Reece Logue gave the comp the Grande Finale, by deadlifting the all-time biggest Irish deadlift, 387.5kg!

Reform Gym were absolutely awesome hosts, as owner Marty and his team had taken care of EVERYTHING for us. The tech, the stage, the weights, everything was set up.

Can’t thank the guys enough!

Huge thanks to all those involved, Belfast qualifier will definitely return!