Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 17:04:43 -0400 From: Caleb Bacon Subject: POWERFEST '98 Yesterday I had the privledge of attending POWERFEST 98 in Albany, NY (my own backyard.) The two highlights of this push/pull meet put on by Warriors on Wheels were: meeting USSM champ and WSM competitor Mark Phillippi and seeing big Sean Culnan deadlift. Because this was an all-day affair, I just went to see some good deading and to meet Mark Phillippi. I was very impressed with the overall quality of lifters. Many people broke state record in the deadlift on their openers! If I had entered I would have done extremely well in my class (TEEN 220's.) What was most impressive, to me, was seeing Sean Culnan (see March Powerlifting USA for his Deadlift workout) deadlift. This behemoth was going for broke. He wanted the intergalactic drug-free deadlift record, also known as his PR and state record. He first started out with 770. He smoked that. It looked like he didn't need two limbs to hoist that load. For his second attempt he upped it by forty pound to 810 lbs. I had never seen anyone deadlift over 500 lbs because I train at a Gold's Gym. This was truly an awesome sight. Again, he smoked it, 810. It was harder than his 770 but he handled it. His New York state and personal record was 815 and he wanted to smash through it. I thought he had 825 in him and my friend thought 820. He surprised us all when he made the giant leap to 835!! That was 20 pounds over his PR. Mark Phillippi was hiding in a corner because his PR was only 821. If that's what Phillippi was doing I don't want to say where I was (just kidding Mark.) The previous best feat of strength I had ever witnessed live was a 475 raw bench while on vacationing. This was going to be much better. Big Sean was finally ready. The lifter before him lifted 275 so the plate loaders had some real work to do to get 835 ready. I was pumped and so was the crowd, but was Sean? Hell yes he was. He approached the platform. Took care of an ammonia inhaler and approached the bar. He did his traditional arm abduction motion and then grabbed hold of the weight of a European automobile. At this point the crowd was going nuts. People were standing. Everyone was yelling. I even found words of encouragement spilling from my mouth that I usually reserve for basketball games. He bent down. The lift had begun. The noise became deafening. Sean was half way up. "He could just do it" we all thought. 2/3 up. He started slowing down. 4/5 up. He was so close and coming around the home stretch. He kept pulling. The bar stopped moving. He kept trying with every Herculean muscle fiber he had left in him. The noise was beyond deafening. The bar just wouldn't budge. A 4/5 doesn't equal three white lights on. However it still was the single most amazing feat of strength I have ever witnessed live. Next meet he'll smoke it, yeah, next meet. Because this event was so successful, by bringing in strongman Mark Phillippi and having Sean Culnan wow so many, local ABC affiliate WTEN was on hand. They interviewed Sean after he had almost set an amazing record. I was happy to see powerlifting get good press like this. I can't wait till POWERFEST '99. Caleb Bacon bacos@juno.com http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/5735/bacon.htm