Topic: Brianna Barnett and more observations

[Mark Cannella]

Folks,

Brianna Barnett competed today in the 63B session.  She moved down from her normal 69 weight class after discussions with her personal coach and Junior World team coaches.

She weighed in at 62.47.  Her opener was with 70 and unfortunately was a miss.  She had a slight elbow bobble on the catch.  She came back with a real good correction on the 2nd lift with 70 and then missed on 73. 

Her clean and jerks were solid and two easy strong makes with 89 and 92.  She then moved to 95.  Her clean again was strong but the jerk proved to be too much for today.  She has classic St. Joe technique and I am sure she will come back strong next time out.

The 63A Women and 77A Men were later in the day.

For the women, Russia broke the China streak with a 102 and 127, 229 total.
A North Korean woman took third.

For the men, Russia dominated the total.  The two guys we saw in training hitting monster lifts, pretty much hit them and more on the platform.  The interview session was interesting to watch also after the medal ceremony.

For the two Russians, both were on and especially on the clean and jerk.  Each lift looked like the others.  The jerks were almost perfect.  The winner especially had an easy time and even passed on his third clean & jerk after handling the other competitors.  (Make lifts. make lifts.)

Observations:

As a meet director, the competition starting is probably the best of times.  Until that point, you stress about a lot of things to ensure the meet is going to run properly.  For this meet, Paul and Co. were certainly stressing a few days ago and you could tell they were in full operation mode.  Now though, the meet is running nicely and they have to be proud. 
The loaders are super fast and the officials, thanks to them! are doing their thing.  Officials are the unsung heroes of all meets and can make a meet director look smart.  Paul is smart and looks smart.  Remember, this is a Junior Worlds and the expectations are high.  The entire IWF contingent is here and they expect excellence.

At the end of each day, the Malaysian men wrap up the training hall.  It is a thankless job, but necessary.

So, within in a blink of an eye all the trash and what not are put away; Plates re-stacked and bars set on the platforms. The natives are starting to get a bit rowdy at like 8 something at night.    Now, here is the great part; they start a pressing contest among themselves and they are cheering wildly as they do it.  10 guys all gathered around the bar testing their strength.  It is a great scene and I am reminded of Artie Drechsler's primer from his book, The Weightlifting Encyclopedia, which opens with a great portrait of Artie's pressing prowess.

The bar gets to about 80 kilos and at that point, they motion to me to see what I can do.  I tell them that I can jerk it, but not press it.  They exhort me to try anyway and I walk over from my fsq's at the end of the day to try to press this weight.  First time I attempt is cold and I only get the bar halfway up.  I then rest for a second and muster all my pressing ability and lo and behold, the press is driven to completion to arms length.  They cheer wildly like a bunch of hooligans with too much beer in them.  The comaradie though is real and you can tell they have worked hard and are proud to put the nuts and bolts together for the competition, training hall and warm-up room.  They deserve a few moments at the end of the day to themselves and I imagine that they probably do this every night while everyone else is gone.

Speaking of gone, the bus drivers for the shuttle are impeccable. On time and always friendly.  I have a good connection with them and they have helped me in ways I can't fully describe.  They are willing to help at a moment's notice.  The driver had a jacket on today.  I asked why and he said it was cold.  It was, 85 degrees.  It is all relative in Malaysia.

Mark

 

[Koing]

That sounds great with the mini comp at the end :D

Koing