AGP 5, NC

[jasonotto]

First off, thank you to everyone who turned out on Saturday for AGP 5. We had some huge lifts by a bunch of very strong human beins.  Thank you to James Retarides for hosting us at the Empower House and for helping to judge/score!  Thank you to Scott and Janelle White for sponsoring awards.  Thank you to Jeff Harbin for burning our 1st place plaques!  

This was our 5th official year holding a sanctioned event in Charlotte.  Back when we started this journey we really wanted to preserve some of the classic grip lifts that are rarely contested these days.  I'm proud to say we have been super consistent with that goal.  This was the first year we changed from 20 mm to 30 mm on Grippers.  We have also kept the 2.5" Crusher, Euro Pinch, and Lever Top.  V Bar was our 5th event and the 2nd time we have contested it.  

Saturday there was a beautiful start to the morning.  James and I got everything set up just in time to enjoy the brisk weather with a cup of coffee while we waited for competitors.  Soon enough our NY friends Vincent Rivellese and Anthony Clarino showed up.  Vinny couldn't help himself and pulled himself up to the gripper table instantly.  He crushed the 156 and 160 with no warm-ups.  We thought he was nuts.  I get the gripper addiction though and I'm slowly getting the gripper bug back myself.

Newcomers Claude Wilson and Hunter Heath showed up next. Two very strong individuals with promising futures in grip!  Wait til you see there numbers!  Throughout the morning our PUA (Porkchop, Cody Ward, Mike Bianchi, and Vinnie Ferraiuolo) crew all showed up with the exception of Bob Sundin and Gary Stuart.  Neither could make the event and we missed them dearly.  We were glad to see Zach Mullins support the event again this year as well.  He is such a well rounded grip athlete.  Robert Miller showed up at 11 on the nose.  No way we would've been able to start with out one of our OGs.  Our event order was 30mm grippers, Lever Top, Crusher, V Bar, and OHP Euro.

In 5 years holding the AGP, we had a few event records fall on Saturday!

Congrats to Vincent Rivellese and Steven Samaniego (Porkchop) for starting our 30 mm record board with a 160 close. They were neck and neck the whole gripper event.  I fizzled out at 146 to take 3rd.  Anthony Clarino was looking for a gripper in between 117 and 129.  My bad, I missed some gaps there.  The good thing was, Anthony hit 129 on his 3rd attempt successfully!  Was all part of my plan.  Congrats on that big crush!

Lever Top came 2nd.  This is one of David Horne's inventions and one of our staples.  We hold this event every year because our crew loves to train it for some reason.  I just think it hurts.  Anyway Mike Bianchi and Cody Ward both made gains since prior events.  Mike won the event with a massive lift of 104 and Cody took 2nd at 101.8.  If you havrnt tried this event, you should.  You will have a new respect for how impressive these two lifts were.  Unfortunately James is battling some elbow pain and could not risk making it worse so he did not enter.  James is the current WR and event record holder with a lift over 121lb!!!

Crusher was next.  My goal coming in was 175.  That would have surpassed my AGP 4 pr of 170.  I lifted 165 easy kn my first attempt and jumped straight to 175.  The damn thing got so close the crossbar each time but I burned up all the reserves in my tank and failed all three.  This was very disappointing.  Looking back I should've gone to 171 on attempt 2 but I was foolish.  Again Zach and Heath put on a clinic.  Zach finished with 185 and change, Heath 180+ and Porkchop at 175.  Other highlights include newcomer Claude Wilson pulling 162!  He did very well on the thick handled events. All respectable numbers.  Tim Butler still holds the event record with 188 in 2022.

And a huge congrats to Newcomer Hunter Heath with a massive V Bar lift of 285.04, breaking a 3 year old event record of 279 held by Tom McClure. We don't contest this even typically, however with some of these lifts I think we will see it more often.  It won't be long until Heath is over 300!  Zach took 2nd with 239.  I scratched from this event.  My body was hurting after my Crusher attempts and I needed to get my head on straight for pinch.  Again, Claude pulled a huge number of 213.  He still had way more in the tank.  He could have pulled 220 quite honestly.  Vinnie F pulled over 173 lb on v bar which was also a PR.  Vinnie pulled a PR in every event he entered!!

Congrats to Zach Mullins for breaking a 2 year old event record on OHP Euro with 100.1.  Robert Miller had the same weight airborne but could not clear the crossbar.  Had he not tore his thumb webbing on a prior attempt, I believe he and Zach would have tied.  Robert took 2nd with 95, which is still a stout number.  I pulled 83 which was a PR.  Not sure what happened as i was pulling high 80s all summer!  I expected a better performance from myself.  This was however, a great event to end the day on.

Overall the event was a huge success.  We had 11 total competitors and every one of them strong.  I was happy to see this was the first contest for some.  It's always nice to be able to spread the sport!  Already looking forward to AGP 6!  

[Cannon]

This is an excellent write up!