The Pembrokeshire Powerlifting Club produced a veritable feast of amazing weight totals as lifters from all over Wales and England travelled to their Pembroke Dock headquarters in search of qualification for the British Championships to be held at the NEC in Birmingham later in the year, writes Bill Carne.

The event was a tribute to the commitment of the local club since it took place despite the awful weather which plagued the county before and during the event, with everyone helping out in some capacity before and after taking on their own personal lifts.

Organiser Aaron Hoskings, who defied a back problem to left an amazing 300kgs in the bench press for his weight category, was quick to praise the support of officials and competitors from as far afield as Birmingham, Exeter and Kidderminster, as well as throughout the principality, and told us: “With so much snow about we had to consider postponing the competition because of the problems of people travelling so far west but decided we had to give it a go after so much work involved.

"And the weather relented enough on Saturday that we were able to put on quite a show that was terrifically supported and produced a string of records.”

As well as Aaron’s super lift there was yet another British record in the dead lift for co-organiser Paul Murphy to enhance his current tally to 47 world records and now over 60 UK records – and at 49 he will be able to dominate the over 50 category next season to add even more!

“I only competed in the one class,” said Paul, “because I need to conserve strength for some huge competitions in the pipeline – but the best moments of a packed weekend came from our talented young lifters who created fantastic new records to show how well the club is doing.”

Leading the way in those younger lifters was Paul’s son Andrew, who competed in the 100kg class and in the squat section lifted an amazing 315kgs which broke his own championship best; not only a junior top weight but for open-class lifters as well!

Andrew also lifter 265kgs in the dead lift and 202.5kgs in the bench press for a massive combined total of 782.5kgs, which put him 40kgs ahead of his closest rival, and over 7.5 times more than his own body weight!

Also showing off his rapid improvement was Callum Lowe, from Kilgetty, who started out two years ago with a combined personal best of 470kgs but in this junior competition where his weight was the same as when he started but with lifts of 190kgs (squat), 150kgs (bench press) and 230kgs (dead lift) was 100kgs better than when he set out.

Not only that but his bench press of 150kgs was the biggest of all time for anyone of his age and weight in the UK!

Callum is the current UK champions and on this sort of form is likely to claim a second title as reward for his total commitment to his sport.

Also worthy of a mention was 16 year old Tyler Worrall, who is Aaron Hosking’s nephew and already showing the family talent for this tough sport.

In his first season of completion he won he won a British qualifier in Swansea, breaking the Welsh record, and followed up with UK and European records as well as becoming World Champion with a dead lift of 135kgs as a raw novice.

Again his development has been rapid because after taking a break to return to his beloved football returned to action in this competition to claim 10 Welsh records from his 12 lifts, despite being far and away the youngest in his age category and lightest weight, with two records each in the bench press and dead lift, plus three apiece in the squat and combined.

Perhaps more importantly, Tyler proved that hard training pays off because his combined total weight was 295kgs – not bad going after having a combined PB of 125 just 18 months earlier.

Also claiming Welsh records in the veteran category was Adrian ‘Haydo’ Phillips from Narberth, who was as competitive as ever but with his wife Penny, another former champion before retiring, was also there to cheer their younger team members on.

“We are very grateful to all the competitors, officials and supporters who helped make the day such a huge success,” said Aaron, “and would like to pay tribute to everyone else who helped in any way, plus our terrific sponsors who enabled us to hold such a prestigious event.