The 57kg class lifted in the middle session of day 2 of the World Open Powerlifting Championships at Stavanger in Norway and boy did they put on a show.
Vargas Vilmas Ochoa of Ecuador asked for 210kg for her opening squat – the biggest opener by far and 10kg above the M1 world record but she missed it on depth. For her second, she went up to 217.5kg but couldn’t get control of the weight and never managed to stand upright with it long enough to get the start command. She kept the weight the same for her third and squatted it successfully, shooting from nowhere at all to the gold medal on squat. A nerve wracking performance!
Brazil’s Erica Bueno put 20kg on the M1 world bench record with 150kg on her opener and followed it up by extending her own open world record with 156kg. She couldn’t quite manage 160.5kg for her third but it was enough for the bench gold medal and to put her into the lead overall.
Going into deadlift, the field was tightly packed with Bueno on 358.5kg (a new M1 world record), GBR’s Ellie Steel hot on her heels with 357.5kg and only 2.5kg covering the next three lifters. All five made short work of their openers which left Steel, Yen-Tzu Huang (Chinese Taipei) and USVI’s Kimberley Johnson all on 527.5kg. Johnson pulled ahead after the second round but Huang responded on her third, moving ahead on bodyweight. At the last, guaranteed the bronze medal, Johnson made a spirited attempt at 202.5kg for the win but couldn’t get it past her knees, giving Bueno the win.
