Zee Meet Report

From The Lexen Extreme Fall Classic in Cbus, O-hi-o


I met Shawn and 4board early Sunday morning to help them out. 4board had gained weight since the last meet and competed as a light (229-ish) 110-kg. Shawn went SuperHeavyWeight (though about 15 pounds lighter than his last outing). There were approximately 55 lifters. The two competing members of the "Gem City Great Steak, Ice Cream and Health Klub" lounged about the warmup room since they were in the third flight while I got bored and ended up helping run a monolift (and wishing I had wore shorts. It was freakin' hot!) Eventually, the crew started their warmups and I had something "to do".

4board opened at 500 and it passed easily. He was basically withut a suit as his Frantz poly was MIA and used his old Inzer standby. Shawn opened with 600 in briefs (with the plan being to get in the meet with the opener then screw around with his canvas get-up), but got called for a bounce on the bottom. Achieving depth was still going to be an issue. In round two, 4board took and got 535 for a PR! We decided on 550 for his third. We got Shawn buttoned into his suit and he was jumping to 900 for his second attempt. A huge increase but the plan was that the weight would help Shawn hit the depth he needed. Unfortunately, he missed depth by approximately 2 inches. He fought the weight down when in actuality he probably should have let the weight force him down quicker, the suit would stop him and he could do the voodoo that he do so well and lift it. A long post-lift discussion with Dan Dague confirmed this and he asked for 1025 for number three. 4board was reminded to keep his head up and push quickly through the mid range of the lift for his last attempt. I was calling his lifts on a tap from the side judge and on the last one as he hit me, I started to call "up" and started to choke and no word came out of my mouth! Not good but I got it out. Despite my f&%*-up, 4board stood up easily with the weight. He got turned down though for trying to rack the bar too quickly.

Then came Shawn like the Mighty Casey he took three tries at setting up with the 1025 (that's one THOUSAND and twenty five POUNDS), and had to adjust the height of the monolift a few times as his wide stance and the sheer heft of the weight kept pushing down. On the third try he stood with the massive weight for a brief instant and then had to rack the bar as it pushed him forward. I cannot begin to imagine how that felt and helped my big friend off the platform. Wow...

To his credit, Shawn decided to still push and pull. As he and 4board were starting to warm-up, he had a family emergency crop up and had to pull out of the meet. (Thankfully everyone was OK!) So I got The Golddigger stuffed into his shirt and waited for him to be called. He opened at 390 and it was easy. The flight (number 4), once it going, moved pretty quickly. He took 405 for his second attempt and got three white lights. But as he got off the bench said it felt 'heavy' (and I'm thinking to myself 'its 405 freakin' pounds it is a bit heavy'). He lowered the bar a little higher than normal and didn't tuck his elbows as much as he could have. That coupled with questionable leg drive would make things a bit difficult. We discussed all this in less than the time it took to write it and decided to take a conservative 415 for a third attempt. More rest and a little shirt adjustment and he smoked the 415. It looked like the easiest one yet.


In the deadlifts, I felt and 4board agreed that he would not have any issues as the deadlift is his lift. He opened at 550 and got three white lights. Then he jumped straight to 600 for what would be a huge PR, and got it! Not wanting to miss his third attempt he decided to take a little less than he had planned to and asked for 615. He started with the weight a little too far out in front of him and had a bit of difficulty starting but quickly corrected himself and pulled a nice PR (which passed 2 to 1). Like Dr. Dre, 4board had a good day (and didn't have to use his AK either!)


It is pretty satisfying to watch how far The Golddigger has come since he bombed out in his first meet back in May (bench only). A lesser man would have not gotten over that, let alone come back to do a full meet less than 2 months later. Since the July meet, he has been able to add 70 pounds to his squat, 50 to his bench and 50 to his deadlift. The interesting thing is that the flimsy Inzer squat suit he had to use probably didn't offer much help, meaning he was doing the work (and leaving open to sepeculation how well he could do with some good gear!)


Overall it was another interesting and entertaining meet; a positive experience. I think we somehow manage to entertain ourselves no matter what, which I think is a good thing. We learn from our experiences and find new weaknesses with our successes, meaning one thing...


Back to the front,
Ed T.


CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 4BOARD!