We Travelled up to Glasgow on friday and arrived for our weight in at around 2pm. With the formalities of Weighing completed we then went on to consume as much food as possible in the next few hours!
Nervous and tired and after a good meal with some other competitors we made our way back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.
Saturday morning had arrived and we were all up and raring to go. We made sure we had a good breakfast (lots more food) and were joined by two multiple Russian world Champions (Sergey Rudnev and Alexander Kvostov) which seemed a bit surreal at that time in the morning. A short taxi drive later and we were at Hillington Park Gym owned by Scott McLaughlin. Scott has recently moved to this location and has a great set up which was set to be a perfect venue for a competition. With over 60 competitors the gym started to fill with some familiar and not so familiar faces. Everyone was busily looking at their flight times (a flight is the time that it is your turn to lift) and warming up, but for Nick, Toby and Myself it was going to be a long wait as we weren't due to lift until 5.15!!!
We made use of the morning chatting to fellow competitors and watching various flights of Jerks. It struck me how much the standard has risen in the sport in just a year of me doing it and there are some big weights being lifted by Women and Men more often than not. After watching the 32's being lifted in the Jerk and some ridiculous numbers by Alexander Kvostov we decided to go for a walk to ease the nerves. Coming back an hour or so later the Snatches had started and with a full bag of goodies from the supermarket we watched some great sets of what i'm sure most people will agree is one of the most frustrating exercises in Kettlebell sport. Surgey Rudnev demonstrated a master class with a 24kg bell at a body weight of 68kg completing 214 reps!! Followed by his student Alexander Kvostov completing 173 reps with a 32kg bell at a body weight of 73kg and that was after having a cold all week!!! This is not taking away some of the great performances by the other competitors who also achieved some great results whilst at the same time being humbled and honoured to lift with two of the best in the world.
With the clock ticking by it was time for us to warm up and due to several people dropping out of the long cycle event at the last minute myself, Nick and Toby were all in the same flight. With our one-off competition t-shirts on, we prepared for battle!
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| T-shirt rear |
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| T-shirt front |
The time had finally come and we prepared our kettlebells and took a deep breath to contemplate the pain that was to come. I can't speak for Nick or Toby but things went ok for me. Don't get me wrong it hurt! the last two minutes particularly but I made ten minutes and got 56 reps with 2x32kg kettlebells which was my target. Toby was slightly disappointed with 93 reps with 2x16kg Kettlebells as he wanted 100 but he made 10minutes and gave it everything he had which is what counts. Nick was slightly off his best with 81 reps with 2x 20kg bells but again gave it his all and has got his fitness back amazingly well after a busy tail end to last year moving house and not being able to train. All in all Three fantastic results and three more gold medals for Team KBC and I also won Absolute winner of the long cycle event. I am always so proud of the time and effort the team members put in and that goes for everyone outside of the competitions too. To see the full videos of our sets please see below -
Nick Palmer - Long Cycle 20kg - 81Reps
Toby Bushell - Long Cycle 16kg - 93Reps
Will Dollar - Long Cycle 32kg - 56Reps
(Nick Palmer to Will's right)
Just to top the weekend off all three of us attended a course covering Jerk and Snatch with Sergey Rudnev and Alexander Kvostov of the IKSFA on Sunday. This was a great course and both instructors showed their quality of instruction and experience with everything they taught. A very worthwhile course and we have gained some tips and tricks which i hope will be passed on to the club to make you all better lifters.
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Left to right - Nick Palmer, Sergey Rudnev, Will Dollar,
Alexander Kvostov and Toby Bushell
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| Absolute Winner - Long Cycle |
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