Powerlifting News
Welcome to the Melbourne University Weightlifting & Powerlifting Club (MUWPC) website. Here you will find the latest news and information about the Club and the sport of powerlifting.
Attention MUWPC Members!
January 24, 2012
JANUARY 26th – AUSTRALIA DAY TRAINING TIMES!
9AM – 1pm! (H.W.R.)
Another Elite Lifter Visits the MUWPC
January 24, 2012
Australian-born Dutch lifter (and IPF World Championship silver medallist!) Pjotr Van Den Hoek, visited the MUWPC for a quick training session and to catch up with a few old mates during his visit to Aus.
This follows on from Brad Gillingham, who dropped by before delivering his amazing WR performance at last year’s Nationals/Pacific Invitational, it’s a privilege to have such legends of the sport as guests of the club – hopefully they wear their T-shirts with fond memories of their time in Melbourne!
MUWPC – 2011 Nationals Thank-you Dinner
November 1, 2011
The 2011 Australian Powerlifting Championships and Pacific Invitational was, by all reports, the biggest and best event in Powerlifting Australia’s history. Australian, Oceanic, Commonwealth and even IPF World Records were broken with the standard of the event matching the quality of the lifting. With over 90% of the work being done by MUWPC volunteers, we held a “Thank-you” dinner just down the road in Lygon Street, as a token of our appreciation for such an amazing effort!
A few photos from the evening:
Dave Platzer dresses for the occasion.
Inaugural MUWPC Golf Classic
October 29, 2011
After weeks of speculation over just who is the club’s finest golfer, six MUWPC members descended on Royal Park Golf Course last Saturday to find an answer.
Pre-match favourite David Jame had been busily talking down his chances leading up to the Classic, but it didn’t bode well for the rest of the field when he arrived wearing personally monogrammed golfing attire. It’s not often that he’s accused of being ill prepared for a comp, and Saturday was no exception as it also emerged that he’d played the Royal Park course only days before.
Nevertheless, a competition it was. Tee off was at 1030 with no complaints from other golfers Big Chris Schaerf, Chris “Sev” Seville, David Platzer, David Northcott, and MUWPC emeritus Al Baille. In the first group with David, Sev and Al were straight out of the blocks. The pair had everyone looking over their shoulders for the ensuing nine holes.
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Melbourne Uni at the 2011 Australian Championships
September 27, 2011
The natural order of the World was restored at the 2011 Australian Championships, with Melbourne University regaining the men’s team title after it had been snatched by the Queensland University pretenders in 2010. Another verity also asserted itself in the running of the Championships, with Melbourne Uni people doing almost all of the set up, spotting and so on. Once again Sean The Penniless, Con Barbakos and Simon The Likeable soaked up blow after blow and came back begging for more.
On to the lifting and Nghiep Luu showed the irrational zeal of the convert, lifting Raw in a determined show of futility. Nghiep was rewarded with a meaningless 535kg and 5th place, but still ahead of young Junior Michael Censori, improving at 527.5kg. Further up in the 74kg class battered warhorse Neville Harris hung on for the win, after Club associate Sean Muir lifted as badly as he has long threatened to do. Just behind Nev was the deeply disturbed Small Luke Helmke, also attempting to train, if that word can be used, for a bodybuilding contest in a month’s time. Lest we forget, Minh Nguyen actually resembled a lifter back in 4th place, getting most of his lifts in a turn up for the books.
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Marcus and Laura’s Farewell Dinner
August 17, 2011
Melbourne’s loss is Perth’s gain! On very short notice, the Flanagans, or as Rob affectionately named them, “Mr and Mrs Irish” have moved across the country to W.A.! However, I’m told it’s only temporary. Even so, this is sad news for the MUWPC as Club Vice-President, Marcus and Property Officer, Laura, became almost instaneously integrated into the fabric of the club the moment they stepped through the door only 18 months ago. Both quickly made friends, trained hard, competed, took up roles on the committee, were an integral part of the 2010/11 nationals and PA’s live streaming of comps. Talk about hitting the ground running!
Melbourne seemed to agree with them too. In their short time here, Marcus added 75kg to his total and Laura added 25kg to hers… as well as their first child (Peach)! All signs point to there being plenty more in the tank too, kilograms that is, not children, well … they are Irish. Anyway, before this gets completely off track, I’d like to say thanks to those who made it to the Southbank farewell dinner on less than a day’s notice and thank-you to Marcus and Laura for all they’ve given to the club and the sport in such a short time!
On Behalf of the MUWPC: “Best Wishes ‘Mr and Mrs Irish’ (and Peach)!
We hope to have you back on the team soon!”
Pacific Invitational and Australian Powerlifting Championships
July 10, 2011
Club members representing the MUWPC at Nationals are:
FULL COMP
74kg Class – Michael Censori, Nghiep Luu, Minh Nguyen, Luke Helmke, Neville Harris
83kg Class – Chris Seville, David Platzer
105kg Class – David Jame (Pacific Invitational Session), Chris Schaerf
120kg Class – Lepeka Nanai
120+kg Class – Joel DiBattista, Stephen Pritchard (Pacific Invitational Session)
BENCH PRESS
74kg Class – Minh Nguyen
83kg Class – Peter Lange, Simon Close
105kg Class – Noah Hannibal
Best wishes for white lights and PRs everyone!!!”
Tickets now available at www.powerliftingaustralia.com
The Hawk Challenge
June 27, 2011
A local meet at the Hawthorn Weightlifting Centre at the end of June saw 26 lifters, 16 from MUWPC, challenge themselves to set personal bests on the platform once more. Katie bested all of her previous lifts to claim a +15kg on her total. Nidhi unfortunately couldn’t improve upon her previous successful outing at the Raw Nationals, bombing on the bench press due to too much giggling. Wing, Tom and Jason all went 8/9 in their very first competition.
The 83kg class was made up entirely of MUWPC lifters, with Sean the Penniless taking top spot. Everyone else improved significantly, with Rene claiming a +42.5kg on his total. Marcus finally benched 100kg and got a total PB despite a drastic weight cut and rushing to the airport half way through the deadlift round. Linh skipped the weight cut in favour of pizzas the night before and went 9/9 for the first time, with three fighting third attempts to please the crowd. Tudor squatted 200kg in his first competition at the club and also made a +20kg PB on the bench press after months of technique work. Big Noah tried a full equipped comp for the first time with solid success, only the hitched deadlifts letting him down.
In the bench press only, Minh gave us a taste of what’s to come at the Nationals with a 170kg equipped bench at 74kg bodyweight, while Peter Lange impressed everyone with an over double bodyweight raw bench, 160kg at 79kg bodyweight.
- Linh Vu
Full results: http://www.powerliftingaustralia.com/Results/2011/2011results20.htm
MUWPC at the inaugural Raw National Championships
March 27, 2011
Eighteen lifters from Melbourne Uni stepped on the platform sans equipments to compete with raw strength & power against other best raw lifters from around the country in the first Raw National Championships held at Hawthorn Weightlifting Centre. Newcomer Dimi, in her first competition, won best lifter among a strong field of female lifters and set a solid A grade total of 372.5kg, not far from an Elite2 ranking. Fellow lifter Katie got a huge 47.5kg improvement on her previous total with 8/9 successful lifts. Nidhi won the female 63kg class. In the men’s divisions, Robert’s battlers had a decent showing with many PBs set, nobody bombing and a few medals won here & there. Club stars Nghiep Luu and David Jame dominated their weight classes, 74 and 105kg respectively. Nghiep, triumphant in his first return to the platform in years, made a massive 520kg total at just 68kg bodyweight and pulled a tremendous 240kg deadlift with an injured hand. David Jame claimed his rightful place in the record books with two national record lifts – a 270kg squat and a 302.5kg deadlift, equalling the open record standard total at 712.5kg and bringing home the Open Men’s Best Lifter title.
83kg class lifter Marcus showed his multi-talents off the platform by setting up and launching the live online streaming of the event, the first for Powerlifting Australia. The channel is available at http://www.justin.tv/powerliftingaustralia/videos and will be on for the equipped Australian Championships at the end of July.
- Linh Vu
Full results: http://www.powerliftingaustralia.com/Results/2011/2011results9.htm
Melbourne Summer Bash
February 13, 2011
Five MUWPC members kicked off this year’s lifting at the Melbourne Summer Bash on the 13th of February in Hawthorn.
Full Results: Melbourne Summer Bash – 13 Feb 2011