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2018 January - LA FIT EXPO - Riccardo Magni


riccardomagni

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2018 LA FIT EXPO VISEGRIP VIKING CONTEST REPORT

I had the pleasure of competing in this contest.  I gave myself the added challenge of cutting weight and getting in better shape in order to qualify for the 100kg weight class.  I made weight at 218.0 (98.9kg).  To put this in perspective, the heaviest I have ever weighed is 286# in 2012.  In the 2016 version of this contest I was 267# and is Anaheim this August I was 237#.

The field was very talented, including Eric Roussin from Canada and Alexander Filiminov from Russia.  Both of these men have won many grip contests in the past and are tough.  This was a 2 day contest that was being scored on a percentage based system.  

Saturday

Rolling Thunder

1st attempt – 85kg Easy

2nd attempt – 90kg  I made the weight easily, but the referee appeared to not be looking.  I had to repeat the weight.  I made it.  I had never done 90kg for 2 reps before, as Clay Edgin pointed out, so that was a good thing, I guess.

3rd attempt – 92.5kg  Miss.  I got the weight off of the ground 3 or 4 inches.  Possibly fatigued from the previous double.

3rd place.  Eric lifted 105kg and Alexander made 95kg.

 

I had to then wait about 5 hours before the Apollon’s Axle Deadlift.  In the meantime, I served as the Head Referee for the Rolling Thunder World Championships.  This was very tense and very exciting, with the winner being determined in a thrilling last round.  It did, however, drain more energy out of me than I thought.

Apollon’s Axle Deadlift

We got limited warmups and then we switched bars.  Then we had to wait for the women’s competition to conclude before resuming.  This was not ideal...

Attempts 1-3 165kg Miss

I dropped each lift at the very top.  I could complain about this, but I think that I was fatigued from the refereeing duties as well as the limited eating over the past few days.  I learned multiple lessons here.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on your perspective) Alexander missed all of his deadlifts with 170kg, so we tied in that event.  Eric made a very strong 187.5kg pull to take a commanding lead into Sunday.

 

Sunday

I knew that I needed a big Silver Bullet Hold to get back into contention.

Even though I was planning to do the #3.5 gripper, I did not have the horsepower to get it done.  I did hold the #3 for 19.88 seconds to take the event win.  Alexander got 16 seconds and Eric got 5 seconds with the #3.

Saxon Bar Deadlift

At this point, I did not know the score of the contest.  I knew it was close and felt like percentagewise I beat Alexander on the Silver Bullet by more than he beat me on Rolling Thunder.  I told Eric Friday night that I felt like the whole contest would come down to the last couple of Saxon Bar Deadlifts and I was correct.  My plan was to match Alexander for each lift; guess what?  He had the same plan!!

1st attempt – 81kg Easy

2nd attempt – 91kg Easy.

3rd attempt – What weight to choose?  My PR was 93.5kg.  However, I made 91kg easier than Alexander.  After much debate, I went to 96kg.  So did Alexander.  He went first and missed.  This was my chance to cement the victory over him…and I dropped the bar at the top with my left hand.

Uh oh!!  Now I had to wait for the calculations to be made and see what happened.

Luckily, I got 2nd place by 1 point!  It was super close contest.  It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.  I had a great time seeing old friends and making new friends.  I had the pleasure of watching the heavyweight Battle of the Titans, including Carl Myerscough and Clay Edgin hitting multiple PR’s.  The women’s contest was very good.  Many new PR’s were set and I am going to have to totally redo the Armlifting USA Leaderboards (which is a very good thing).  I hope that more people go to the FIT EXPO contests.  The chance to meet new people and learn from them is well worth the effort and expense.  

Thanks for reading this!

 

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5 hours ago, WestSlope said:

The huge breaks between events must be hard to manage. I hope to see you hit that 3.5 SB in your next outing! Great job dumping the excess bodyweight as well.

That makes two of us.

Thanks again for the positive comments, Steve.

Edited by riccardomagni
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