Anything related to the 10-12 July 2009 Powerlifting meet is welcome here. Concerns specific to the Gathering held on the same weekend is best posted in the Gathering discussion thread.

To sign-up for this special meet, click here.

This will be my first meet and I've got a question on the bench press rules. 

My legs are really short and we've got a high bench so normally I put my feet on 6in high plastic crates.  The surface of the crates is criss-crossed plastic with holes (like a normal plastic crate for vegetables or something) and the crates are caving in a little from extensive use... so it's a flat surface but not an even surface (does that make sense?) 

I don't think the surface gives me any advantages, but I like my crates and am hoping  they are legal for me to use!  Please let me know

Thanks!

Hi Lindy,

Sorry for the slow reply. According to the rules:

To achieve firm footing, flat surfaced blocks or weight plates not exceeding 30 centimeters/11.8 inches may be used.

So the height of your crates is well within the permitted range. In a sanctioned meet, you would find either sturdy wooden/plywood boxes or weight plates being used, but if the crates do not flex much under your weight they should do fine too. But if in doubt, pile up some plates instead.

Thanks for checking up on this before the meet and let me know if you have any more questions.

All lifters should now have received an e-mail with the upload details etc. If you haven't please let me now ASAP.

Note that those lifting at the Gathering have not received a mail since we will bulk upload the clips after the meet on Saturday.

Kris, thanks for organizing the gathering! I had a great time and am glad to have been able to meet you, Mans, and Alberto, and your family.

The meet had a great positive atmosphere to it. I could learn a lot from the other lifters and about Finland, too. Next time I plan to stay longer to see more of Finland.

Lifting outdoors is really cool and it made me think whether there are ways for me to do this in Vienna too.

Looking forward to see the judging and the meet videos.

Greetings from the Arctic Circle! Alberto and I are roughing it by surfing the net in our tiny tent.

We had an extremely nice gathering and outdoor meet on Saturday. More pictures and stories to follow, but here's one to get started.

Christian and Alberto, it was really an honor to see you two arrange to fly in for the gathering, I enjoyed every second of it.

Finally: got all gathering clips uploaded yesterday over a mobile connection. All lifters have now uploaded, but it seems like one lifter may have forgotten to upload the deadlifts. I have given some time to sort this out, but I should be able to get the meet to the judges from this very tent under the midnight sky once the situation is resolved.

At the moment we have two judges: Ryan Rigdon and Mike Amos. A third judge should soon be confirmed.

Update to follow.

 

By an unholy union of camping and modern technology and the grace of the midnight sun that never sets, the meet is now with the judges. We are still one judge short which may slow down the judging a bit. But we'll get there. As usual, the judges now have one week to complete the judging.

Virtualmeet the gathering road trip is now heading into Norway after some mountain climbing GPP action.

Powered by vast quantities of noodles and energy drinks, the post-meet road trip made its way some 1300 kilometers / 808 miles north of Toffe's Gym to North Cape, the tip of Europe, and back.

The meet also got its last judge slot filled by Ron Villani, well-known lifter and the judge of several virtualmeets. At the moment, the judging is 67% done. So far so good.

Nice pictures, nice stories! Maybe there will be a second gathering next year?!

Nice pictures, nice stories! Maybe there will be a second gathering next year?!

That would be great. I was in Finland only for a too short a time and it was still a great experience. I also had a moment of culture shock there too: In Finland they sell Kettlebells and lifting chalk in Supermarkets. Sadly, I cannot see this ever happen in Austria.

Let's put it this way: the gathering was a blast and doing another one next year would be awesome. However, I will need to do some preliminary planning to see how a gathering would fit in next year, especially if we have another go at my island gym. The final word will be out when the 2010 meet schedule proposal is presented in the fall. So stay tuned.

One thing is fairly certain though: as much as the road trip was an incredible experience (many thanks to Alberto!), I unfortunately cannot make a habit of taking a week off the family vacation every year to drive into the wilderness. Those few weeks are simply very precious having two young kids. But if a gathering is arranged next year too at my end, I will naturally make sure it is again an event to be remembered in one way or another. Of course, there is nothing stopping participants from pooling together to arrange a follow-up Arctic Circle adventure or whatever should there be interest.

Enough said for now. Meanwhile, any thoughts and hand waiving from people who would be seriously interested in doing a gathering next year are warmly welcome.

Update: the judging has been somewhat delayed due to one of the judges having been tied down by this thing known as life. While we strive to get the judging done within one week after the meet has reached the judging phase, we must also remember that these guys are doing the judging in their spare time for free. So please bare with us a bit longer, I have been told that the outstanding rounds will shortly be judged.

judging complete on my part.

Excellent, thanks Ryan, Ron and Mike!

I will try to release the meet tomorrow Monday.

Done, the meet has been released!

This turned out to be a historic meet in more respects than anticipated. As you all know by now, it was of course the first ever Gathering... and an amazing one at that. Being able to meet and lift with Alberto from Puerto Rico, Christian from Austria and buddy Måns from Finland felt incredible. It was an intense meet and with spectators from neighboring cottages plus my family as a backdrop to some heavy tunes, it got the adrenaline flowing. It made a world of difference at least for me who, after being largely out of the gym for the last one and a half years or so due to various reasons, managed to post much better lifts than in my pre-meet test sessions. I may have posted my worst total by far in a virtualmeet, but this was in so many respects the best meet ever for me.

We also saw some drama. Alberto forgot to get out of his long pants for his squats and amazingly, blame it on the adrenaline or whatever, none of us noticed it until after he had stumbled out of the rack after a successful but very hard second attempt... that he did after failing the lift on his first attempt. Being faced with the risk of bombing out, he had to redo it once more or be out of the game. And he did, big time! Christian suffered a worse fate with his third attempt bench being seriously misloaded which made for a nasty surprise. Unlike a real meet, retaking misloaded attempts is specifically prohibited in our rule set so that was that. All of the guys managed to post at least one virtualmeet PR.

But those lifting elsewhere than in the Finnish woods made a big splash, especially Claudia Gerhards who became the first lifter to make Elite in the Virtualmeet rankings. Her numbers where impressive with a 115kg (253.5lbs) squat, a 70kg (154.3lbs) bench press and a 145kg (319.7lbs) deadlift at a bodyweight of 60.4kg (133.2lbs). Fellow Swiss Ramon Gysin unfortunately tore his hamstring on his second squat attempt and had to bow out of the deadlift... but that very same 205kg (451.9lbs) squat also landed him first on the squat rankings. Lindy Rossow of the USA also made an impressive debut clocking in at second place on the women's totals.

So with its ups and downs, this is a meet to remember. I only touched the surface in regard to the Gathering; more thorough coverage to follow within the next few days... I also suspect that the other guys will have a few words to say about it.

Thanks to Mike Amos, Ryan Rigdon and Ron Villani for once again saving the day by judging the meet. Thanks!!

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