Konovalov – Sumner – Svistunov at the IPF Worlds

10 Nov , 2018

The battle at the 120+ class

Andrey Konovalov took the gold today (day 5) at the World Open Equipped Powerlifting Championships 2018 in Halmstad, Sweden.

Here are the BIG 3 Konovalov – Sumner – Svistunov

1. Andrey Konovalov (Russia) 1227.5 kg (475-377.5-375)

2. Blaine Sumner (USA) 1225 kg (465-415-345)

3. Volodymyr Svistunov (Ukraine) 1135 kg (447.5-367.5-320)

Watch the video of all attempts

Blaine Sumner shared on Facebook:

8 weeks ago I sliced my arm open missing the rack on a 1,025 lb squat.

I was less than a centimeter away from ending my lifting career. And a few feet away from ending my wife’s life.

Right when my equipped training was supposed to start for Worlds, this happened. The first few hours in the ER and the next few weeks I thought I was done because mentally getting under the bar again scared the daylights out of me. When I first tried lifting again I would get dizzy and light headed trying to load the bar because of the psychological trauma and I couldn’t get over the scarring memory of seeing my bodily tissue hanging out of my arm. My wife got my head screwed on straight and pushed me to overcome this fear. I cannot begin to describe what she has done for me to get ready for this meet.

I’ll save that for another post. With only a couple weeks left before Worlds, I got under the bar again and had even more near catastrophes – again for a later post. I kept facing these incidents and kept coming back. I finished a heartbreaking 2nd today at the IPF Open World Championships. Only my opening squat of 1,025 lbs was passed after 1,047 lbs got turned down twice on depth. I broke my own Bench Press World Record with 915 lbs on my opening attempt and pressed 937 lbs but was overturned by the jury. I deadlifted 761 lbs for a total of 2,701 lbs, 5 lbs. behind first place.

Well deserved win to Konovalov from Russia and an exceptional performance from an incredible lifter. I’ve had some heartbreaking meets in my career – but for some reason this is easier to swallow because of how different my life could have changed a few weeks ago. I don’t know what comes next in my lifting career, but thank you all for the support – I love you all!

POWERLIFTING MOTIVATION

Konovalov – Sumner – Svistunov at the IPF Worlds

The battle at the 120+ class