On Saturday 25th August, 25 kettlebell sport athletes from around the country (plus one intrepid athlete from Singapore) put their lifting to the test at the World Kettlebell Club Australian National Championships.  All competitors were required to rank with the WKC or submit a video demonstrating good, safe technique prior to competing, making this the hardest Australian competition to enter thus far.

While some impressive numbers were put up on the day, by far the most impressive aspect of the competition was the overall quality of lifting - without doubt the best Australia to date.  The change in focus from bashing out reps as fast as possible to lifting with class made this a great competition to watch and more experienced judges did a fantastic job of enforcing the high standards we are aiming for.

Some of the highlights of the day included James Ross' 28kg long cycle set (just 4 reps off Candidate for Master of Sport),  Matthew Newman officially achieving Rank II in biathlon, Tiffany Cowie and Tia Vasiljevic taking on 14kg biathlon, Dan Zivkovich and Nick Efthimiou putting up solid numbers with the 24s, the sheer volume of lifters from Rock Hard Training in Bendigo who stepped up onto the platform and lifted with style, Barbie Badcock's 18kg long cycle set, Scott Carroll's 96 reps in 20kg long cycle and Melanie Walsh coming all the way from Canberra for her very first comp.  Too many to mention!

For anyone who wanted a break from the kettlebell sport, there was an arm wrestling table provided by Jesse Johnson (who is soon to compete in the arm wrestling World Championships in Brazil) to have a play on - looked like a few people got hooked on that pretty quickly!  Jarrod Riordan from Oz Grip and Bending also brought in some grip training tools so people could test their strength and trial some equipment a lot of people haven't even heard of.

All in all, it was a very successful comp and a lot of fun.  Here are the results for the day:

Men's Biathlon Bodyweight KB Jerks   Snatch 1 Snatch 2 Total Place
Daniel Zivkovich 90kg 24 79 69 67 146 1st
Nick Efthimiou 85kg 24 87 53 52 139 1st
Matthew Newman 90kg 20 78 81 70 148 1st
Stephen Poskitt 90kg+ 16 105 86 90 191 1st
Damien Sherwell 90kg+ 16 85 78 88 163 2nd
Joel Gill 90kg+ 16 82 80 80 162 3rd
Don Grant 90kg+ 16 82 62 65 144 4th
Sam Murray 90kg 16 83 83 93 166 1st
Adam Waters 75kg 16 60 60 60 120 1st
Aaron Anderson 85kg 12 147 90 81 228 1st
Women's Biathlon Bodyweight KB Jerk 1 Jerk 2 Snatch 1 Snatch 2 Total  Place
Tijana Vasiljevic 70kg 14 70 61 65 65 126 1st
Tiffany Cowie 65kg 14 63 66 69 61 124 1st
Danielle Stevenson 70kg+ 10 70 74 72 75 142 1st
Anna Papij 70kg+ 10 71 70 71 72 141 2nd
Hayley Lethlean 70kg+ 10 62 66 72 91 134 3rd
Bernadette Garvin 70kg+ 10 55 49 78 80 127 4th
Jenny Fletcher 70kg 10 72 78 80 84 152 1st
Jackie Ender 65kg 10 60 61 76 94 136 1st
Melanie Walsh 60kg 8 66 77 97 101 163 1st
Men's Long Cycle Bodyweight KB         Total  Place
James Ross 80kg 28 56 1st
Scott Carroll 90kg+ 20 96 1st
Women's Long Cycle Bodyweight KB 1 2     Total Place
Barbie Badcock 70kg+ 18 56 56 56 1st
Evie O'Shannessy 60kg 10 50 47 47 1st
StrongSport Biathlon   KB OAJ 1 OAJ 2 Clean 1 Clean 2 Total Place
Simon Hikaka 40 24 22 40 33 55 1st
StrongSport Long Cycle   KB  LC 1 LC 2     Total  Place
Andyn Kadir 32 16 16 16 1st

 

 

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