A warm October afternoon and our meet went well even though the field was small. The local meets are an absolutely key part of the weightlifting development of the U.S.A. Local meets provide a platform where new talent can make its debut, more experienced athletes can refine their competitive skills and coaches can determine whether their coaching has been productive. They also provide an opportunity for our weightlifting tribes to come out of their respective caves and interact with each other, trade information and reinforce the spirit of the sport.
The Los Al Barbell Club is a relatively new team from Los Alamitos, CA. Coached by David Rael-Brook, the team was represented by two male masters and one female junior. Paul Alvarez and John Culqui lifted with great aplomb.
Philip Fuentes, Matthew Ward and Peter Bomar were unattached and gained competitive experience in this competition. Brian Do lifted well in representing UCSB who was coached by Alison Parakh.
The best lifting was turned in by Jeff Suarez who snatched a PR 102 and jerked 122. He very nearly jerked the 133 that would have qualified him for the American Open. Ben Quachtran, Glenn Shull, and Chris Lee performed well to established personal records. Here is the statistical wrap-up.
Several of the women performed notably. Anna DiSalvo represented UCSB and went 5 for 6. Tori Dow, coached by Mike Tromello, and Yamila Molina of Los Alamitos are juniors lifting in their first competition. They went 4 for 6 and 5 for 6 respectively and displayed good competitive demeanor. We hope they continue to keep lifting and I think they will as they seemed to truly savor the competitive experience.
Natalie Vezina, wife of our former intern Jess Vezina, came all the way from Arizona to go 4 for 6 and second in the 58 kg. The winner was Nina Sanchez of Takano Athletics who is recovering from an injury.
Our Takano Athletics female members did exceptionally well. Jay Johnson in the 69 kg class was lifting in her first competition and lifted 80 and 97 to qualify for the American Open. Morgan White came back from a slight lay-off to match her PR total, and Deborah Robinson tuned up for the American Masters by breaking the existing American records in her 65-69 age group. Lindsey Dill tied her total PR and broke her C & J PR.
I have to give thanks to our event crew who made the event run smoothly. Officials Penelope Morgan, Emily Dow, Brian Dong and Sagi Gal provided consistent officiating. The loading was handled by Casey Hsiung, Cameron Walker, Varatep Buranintu and Brian Dong. Lionel Bravo was injured before the competition but filled in ably as scorekeeper.
