Anyone else watch the WPO over the weekend? For those unaware, WPO is the biggest meet for only the very best multiply lifters in the world. Only 20 women and 19 men competed.
Some highlights:
3 women from MN placed in the top 15. Two of those are teammates of mine - they finished 11 & 12.
Dave ****ing Hoff is amazing. He opened with 1174 squat. His 2nd attempt would have been ~1253. I think the right side of the monolift hook hit the bar when they were pulling it, which pulled him forward a little. He couldnt do a 1250 lb calf raise (pussy, lol) so he basically did a good morning and the spotters saved him. This tore his hamstring, so he skipped his 3rd squat.
I know from my experience at WPC worlds last year that you can bench very well with a freshly torn hammy, so I was hoping Hoff would put up a big bench. He did not disappoint.
He went 1008/1047 miss/1047 good on bench - that broke his own record for the heaviest bench ever in a full meet.
DLs, he went 500/551/600 to take down his 4th straight WPO title by an easy 28 points. You could tell he was really hurting when he DLed. A little birdie told me he might have had some help with some pain killing stuff after squats, but still, this was a bad hammy tear - worse than the one I suffered at WPC worlds last year. Pulling 600 with that was pretty incredible.
2nd through 4th was a great battle. Anthony Hobaica got his 3rd DL & put up a 2359 total at 198 for a 661 gloss score to take a slim lead over Matt Minuth. Minuth missed his 2nd and 3rd DLs to take 3rd with a 2606 total and a 659 gloss score (2 points from 2nd). Daniel Tinajero, who is a great guy and one of the best technical lifters I know, took 4th with a PR 2513 total and a 647 gloss score - Danny attempted 810 on his 3rd DL which would have given him 2nd place. He got it most of the way up, then lost his grip just short of lockout.
Bob Merkh's missed 3rd squat was the most amazing performance of spotters I have ever seen & maybe the best highlight of the whole meet. Merck was squatting something over 1100 lbs. At the top, the bar started rolling off his back. Robert Bain was the middle spotter. Bain saw the bar coming out of Merck's hand and he made a split second decision to call for the other four spotters to grab the weight, then he bumped Merck forward with his hips and grabbed the bar like he was doing a zercher squat. The spotters racked it as Merck flew forward, safely out of the way. I've personally been a part of spotting & catching so many 1000+ lb squat misses I cant count, but I have never seen anything like what those spotters did today. it was incredible. And its the mirror opposite of the fiascos you see with terrible spotters in some other federations (USAPL/IPF especially). APF/WPC/WPO is by far the best.
If you want to watch this meet, you can see the videos from it on WPO's FB page. They have one video each for womens squat, bench & DL and one each for mens squat bench & DL.
https://www.facebook.com/worldpowerorg
yeah, I love watching the WPO. I know a lot of, if not most of, the lifters, spotters, judges, ect., which makes it fun to cheer for many of these people, and it is the best geared lifting meet in the world.