Southlanders to exhibit the holy trinity of strength at upcoming powerlifting nationals

Sport-crazy Southland athletes will compete against their counterparts from other regions to fight for the country’s strongest athlete title as per their weight classes later this month.

American strength training coach and overall godman of all things weights Mark Rippetoe once said: “Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general.”

To prove their weight’s worth and Rippetoe right, next month 24 strength athletes from Southland and Otago will go plate to plate against their counterparts in the New Zealand Powerlifting Federation’s 2023 Nationals in Christchurch.

They are associated with Southland and Otago powerlifting association Southern Powerlifting.

At the competition from 6 to 10 September, athletes across ages and weight classes will perform the troika of lifts: the squat, bench press and deadlift, for medals that will then take them to international powerlifting stages and competitions.

Southern Powerlifting secretary Anna Claire Thompson said: “16 male athletes and 8 female athletes from Southland and Otago will be competing in this year’s national competition. The youngest is 15-year-old Darren Lui, while our oldest athlete is Lesley Proctor at 67 years of age.”

Thompson will also be a referee at the Nationals.

Thompson said that powerlifting was a highly inclusive sport.

“In Southern Powerlifting, we have a strong Special Olympics team. It’ll be going to Nationals as well.”

She said that 26-year-old powerlifter Tim Monigatti is expected to bag the Best Lifter title as well. Monigatti recently won a silver medal in the under 74 kg class, and created a world record for squatting 283.5 kg.

The NZPF is the country’s official governing body for powerlifting and is associated with the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF), Commonwealth Powerlifting Federation (CPF) and Oceania Regional Powerlifting Federation (ORPF).

Hailed as the biggest ever national competition in powerlifting so far, the event will see 266 athletes compete.

Invercargill powerlifter Jessica Reid will be competing alongside her mother Linda Reid at the nationals.

Jessica, who got into powerlifting 4 years ago, competed at her first national competition last year, after Covid-19 cancelled the previous years’ competition.

“The thing I’m looking forward to most is, it’s such a niche sport, because although you’re competing against other people, it’s still the most supportive environment you have ever been in,” she said.

“You can’t just magically add strength and [weight] numbers to your total. It’s all about the process of putting in the work and then just taking what’s there on the day. But obviously, doing as well as I can is always a goal,” she said.

Reid strives to have a place at the podium but will also consider bettering her attempts from the previous competitions a good thing.

She holds the squat record for Southern Powerlifting at 140.5 kg and aspires to create a deadlift record in her weight class as well.

Jessica’s mother, Linda, 61, will also be competing in her first national competition.

“She broke her arm a couple years ago. So she wanted to get stronger, she saw what I was doing and wanted to get into it. And she’s accelerated immensely into it,” Jessica said.

Linda deadlifts 117.5kg in the under 52kg weight category.

Jessica is looking forward to sharing the experience with her mother.

Southland is no stranger to strength.

Southland powerlifter Andy Mahon picked up a swagger of medals at the 2017 IPF World Classic Powerlifting Championships in Belarus, lifting a total of 795.5kg, to claim the overall silver medal.

In 2019, Mahon won the M1 105 kg section with a total lift weight of 800kg (315kg, squat; 167.5kg, bench press; and 317.5kg, deadlift), while also creating Oceania and NZ records in total and deadlift.