Deadlitfing World Champion
West Palm Beach, Florida, the likely location for a mid-summer vocational retreat, but does deadlitfing spring to mind? On 13th November 2014, Ashraf Ali of Bulks Power & Strength Gym, Gravesend, successfully broke the World record for the t1 age group in the 82.5kg weight class with an incredible 196kg lift which is god knows how many times my own body weight. Beating the previous record by 6kg at the WPC world championship, months of training had paid off. "I qualified through regionals where I broke 4 British records and then I went on to nationals to qualify where I broke 4 other ones". However fundraising for the trip was not easy and a grand was needed to kick start the chance of becoming a world champion.All in all £250 was raised through donations and £300 came from his school which along with other savings were enough to take him across the pond and compete. "I was close to bombing after missing my second and third squat d bench so I needed a kick in the back side." And a kick in the back side was what he got because after recording two lifts at 150kg and 80kg respectively he pulled it out of the bag with a massive 196kg to win the title. "I came away with my target so need to put the mistakes in front of me and start working." Who knows maybe in a a few years time we'll be seeing the fifteen year old lift not just a few more weights but a few more titles further on down the line as he aspires to have "More golds and world records hopefully" in the near future.
