Saturday's Snipers

I just got back from a yoga class and I realised in the middle of the session just how tired I am from the weekend. It was a great experience overall and I am really glad that I went over. Myself and the rest of the lads had some great lifting and fun on the trip over to London for the Greater London Open on Saturday. Kevin D'Arcy hit a fantastic 130 Snatch and it looked like there was more in the tank. Cathal Byrd ground out a 138 Clean and Jerk that looked unsaveable and won the 77kg weight class. Nathaniel Callaghan hit 103/122 and barely missed a 107 Snatch. Eamonn Flanagan and Wayne Healy really helped all the lifters with their coaching and Wayne in particular helped me.

We stayed beside the competition venue in the Crystal Palace National Sport's centre. Cathal was first up for the weigh in and also to compete, so I joined him and did a light morning power up session around half nine or so which I felt immeasurably better afterward. I did a basic warm up, Power Snatched up to 70 for three singles and Power Cleaned up to 90 for a double and left it at that.

There were 16 people in in the 94kg weight class and in then end I came 6th. Kevin won it and Nat came 9th. Here is what I did:

Warm up--I felt great after the long wait and morning warm up. I felt really happy to be there and enjoyed everything about the competition. Wayne had me do Power Snatch+Full Snatch in the warm up because he later told me I was swinging the bar a lot and this combination removed most of the swing.

Power+Full Snatch--1x2@50, 50, 50, 70, 80
Snatch--1x1@90, 90, 100

Competition lifts:
Snatch
1x1@105--This was very strange. I started the lift and for some reason, dropped the bar straight away. Because I did not raise it above the knee and I had a little less than ten seconds left, I Snatched it very easily for a shaky success. I was simply not focusing enough and Wayne was more than happy to express this.
1x1@111--This was far better and an easy lift.
1x1@114--This was my best Snatch by far because I was focused and aggressive, but still nice and relaxed. This was a 3kg competition pb and a 1.5kg pb from what I got in July.

Clean and Jerk--I was feeling a little off coming into these: my stomach was feeling off from the caffeine and sugar and my legs were not feeling as strong as I wanted. I had a quick warm up:
1x1@70, 70, 70, 100, 115, 125
Competition lifts
1x1@136--I actually had to wait a log time between all my attempts and my first lift was easy, but not as secure as I would have liked.
1x1@141--This was my longest wait of around ten minutes or a little more and my clean was light, but ugly. I missed the Jerk when all I needed was a little more drive.
1x1@146--I wanted to go for the 260 total. I cleaned it and just missed the Jerk. It was a far better lift than the 141, but what can you do. I simply did not have it on the day. That little bit of drive in the Jerk was just not there.

After the competition I was wrecked, but happy with my Snatch pb and my Clean pb. I was close to my goal of 260kg, but I know I can get it next time I go for it. I learned a lot over there. The new environment was demanding and the sheer amount of lifts taking place was staggering. There was two platforms with lifters competing simultaneously, so focus and concentration was needed. It was a far cry from domestic Irish competitions and the experience will do me the world of good. Unfortunately, I have no videos of any of my Snatches, but below are the videos I have: Cathal's lifts and my Clean and Jerks. Thanks again to Wayne who really helped me out and all the English lifters that were so obliging.