2012 59kg Caribbean Powerlifting Championships gold medallist and record holder, Vijai Rahim along with brothers Gumendra and Suraj Shewdas will be looking to break records when this year’s Juniors and Novices Powerlifting Championships is staged on Sunday.
All three junior lifters hail from the Ancient County and will look to record impressive totals at the New Amsterdam Multilateral High School in order to be considered for selection for overseas competitions later in the year.
“I am aiming to break the South American squat record”, declared the 20-year-old Rahim during a telephone interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday.
Rahim who will be moving up to the 66kgs class and has a career best of 500.5 pounds (227.5kgs) in the squat added. “The record at the moment stands at 529 pounds so I thinking 530 (pounds) and up.
The Hardcore Gym product that lifted a career best 232.5kgs (511 pounds) in the dead-lift and bench-pressed 105kgs (231 pounds) just three months ago at the Guyana Amateur Powerlifting Federation (GAPF) Senior National Championships where he was crowned the overall champion further declared:
“I also want to raise the dead-lift to 540 and the bench press to 270 (pounds). I have been lifting really well in training and I expect to rewrite history again on Sunday”.
In telephone interviews with the Shewdas brothers from Total Fitness Gym, 18-year old Gumendra (53kgs division) intimated that he will be aiming to improve his lifts by 10 pounds across the board. His brother Suraj, 19 (59kgs division) echoed the same aspirations.
Gumendra’s personal bests are 396 pounds in the squat, 185 pounds in the bench press and 418 pounds in the dead-lift while Suraj’s best are 436 pounds (dead-lift), 215 pounds (bench press) and 418 pounds (squat).
The lifters will be vying for a place to represent Guyana at the Caribbean/Pan American/ North American Championships in Orlando, Florida from July 1 to 7.
According to the GAPF, the championships are scheduled to attract in excess of 30 lifters. Some of them are Fabian Ketwaroo, Jeremy Chow, Troy Felix, Hardat Terry, Deonarine Dutt, and females Tiffany Mack, Candacy Lynch, and Natoya Robinson.
The event commences at 11:00hrs and admission is free. The main sponsors include Fitness Express and the Trophy Stall.
Weigh in starts at 8:00hrs.
