Clean sweep for powerlifters
Everyone in the team was selected to the RPC national team that will compete at the GPC world powerlifting and bench press championships in Argentina later this year
THE De Waal powerlifting team of Kempton Park competed at the Rhino Powerlifting Club (RPC) national championships and walked away with six first places, three best lifter trophies, the strongest team trophy and a string of South African and world records.
Everyone in the team was selected to the RPC national team that will compete at the GPC world powerlifting and bench press championships in Argentina later this year.
Rhino Powerlifting Club is a national powerlifting federation affiliated with the Global Powerlifting Committee based in Europe. There are 27 member countries.
Powerlifting consists of three disciplines, squat, bench press and deadlift. Each lifter gets three attempts at each discipline to reach the heaviest lift that will count towards a lifting total.
Some lifters specialise in the bench press or deadlift and do not take part in the other lifts but can still set a single lift record.
Lifters have the option to lift either RAW or equipped. RAW means the lift is done without the assistance of a special lifting suit.
When they lift equipped, the lifter wears a squat, bench or deadlift suit made up from multiple layers of very strong fabric that enables them to lift much heavier weights. With the exception of Johan Steenkamp, everyone in the De Waal team are RAW lifters.
The De Waal team consists of six members that train under the watchful eyes of head coach and former world champion powerlifter, Pieter de Waal, and his son, Jaco de Waal. Jaco won his first world championship as a sub junior at the age of 16 in 2005.
Jaco set four new SA records: squat (282.50kg was 200kg), bench press (182.50kg was 140kg), deadlift (280kg was 240kg), total (745kg was 560kg).
His two new world records are squat (282.50kg was 262.50kg) and total (745kg was 715kg). He also won overall best lifter in the senior division.
Franz Rusch, who is a bench press specialist in the 110kg division, set a new SA record of 195kg in the bench press 110kg open division.
Teenager Willie Fourie (75kg division) boasts four SA and two world records.
His SA records are squat (220kg was 210kg), bench press (125kg was 120kg), deadlift (240kg was 220kg, also a world record) and total (585kg was 550kg, also a world record). Willie also won the overall best lifter in the teenager division.
Bench press specialist masters, Johan Steenkamp, won gold at the RPC national championships, setting a new SA record in master 1 90kg division equipped bench press at 155kg.
Sonja de Waal, world champion powerlifter master, competed in the open class (age between 24 and 39) and walked away with a first place at the RPC nationals. Sonja set four SA records for both open and masters: squat (135kg was 110kg), bench press (105kg was 50kg), deadlift (160kg was 130kg), total (400kg was 275kg).
Her four world records set for both open and masters are squat (135kg was 132.50kg), bench press (105kg was 87.50kg), deadlift (160kg was 150kg) and total (400kg was 340kg). She also won the overall best lifter female open/senior class.
Jan Kruger, a world champion powerlifter master1 set four new SA records. There were no records for this class.
The records were squat (new record 275kg), bench press (new record 192.50kg), deadlift (new record 290kg) and total (new record 757.5kg).
He also set three unofficial world records, namely squat (275kg, current world record 270kg), bench press (192.50kg, current world record 175kg) and total (757.50 kg, current world record 710kg).
He decided not to officially record his world records as part of his strategy for the world championships in September.
Everyone in the team qualified to attend the GPC world championships in Iguasu, Argentina by exceeding the qualifying standard for national team selection.
