2024 August - Rocky Mountain Grip Sport 4th Annual Summer Grip Challenge – Sanjiv Gupta

[TeamGupta]

With the busy grip calendar and some athletes tending to injuries, the 4th Annual Summer Grip Challenge only had (4) participants with record attempts replacing head-to-head competition.  The event was held at The Core Gym in Carbondale which was a comfortable venue.  I got to test my grip alongside Jess, Steve and Jeremy.  We were all in different weight classes, but there was plenty of motivation to climb up the leaderboards at gripsort.org.

The original slate of events included:
•    Double Shallow Inch Pinch (6” Lift)
•    Wrist Wrench 2 3/8” (6” Lift)
•    HorneTop (10” Lift)
•    2” x 5” Saxon Bar (Lockout)
•    Double Overhand Axle DL (Lockout)

When it became apparent that head-to-head competition may be limited, some other implements were brought out:
•    The Payne (6” Lift)
•    Inch Hold For Time
•    The Goldbar

Double Shallow Inch Pinch – This was my first time in competition with this implement and I set a personal best of 33kg.  Steve had the best lift at 50.5kg and Jesse set the 66kg record at 41.0kg.  I have some room for improvement and noticed the top lifters are getting more chest engagement to really lock into the implement.

Wrist Wrench 2 3/8” – This is not a good lift for me, but I have been training with it some.  I set a personal best of 27.5kg and was very happy with that.  In training, I was only at 26kg and this was another personal best.  Jeremy had the best lift at 47.05kg, but none of our lifts were weight class records.

HorneTop – This is a pretty tough implement and there is certainly some figuring out.  In training I was gripping fairly low on the implement, but at the competition folks were grabbing closer to the top.  I set a personal best of 55.35kg.  

2” x 5” Saxon Bar – I had never trained with a 2” x 5” Saxon and did not know what to expect.  On the 3” x 4” Saxon, I had managed 52.6kg and surprised myself with a pull at 71.4kg on the 2” x 5” Saxon.  This implement certainly fits my hand better.

Double Overhand Axle DL – I did not even attempt this lift as I was still basking in the glory of my 113.85 kg pull at Dub’s Grip Classic.  Jeremy attempted this one but was not able to beat his previous best.

The Payne – This was new to all of us except Jesse.  He brought the implement and set the 66kg record at 19.85kg.  Steve Jeremy and Jesse are now 2-3-4 all overall with lifts behind Jason Dingey overall leader at 24.95kg.  It is a deceptively tricky implement that I was excited to put up 11.8kg.

Inch Hold For Time – As I cannot yet lift the Inch Dumbbell, this was not an event for me.  Jeremy had an impressive of hold of 6.8 seconds which rounds down to 6.5 seconds for official scoring.  Steve gave this a try also but could not best his previous benchmark of 8.0 seconds.

The Goldbar – No attempts were made on The Goldbar.  We were all wearing down after several hours of competition. 

Overall, it was a fun, well run event.  We started at 10AM and were wrapped up with the truck loaded by 1PM.  This worked out to be a pretty good day trip for me with the 3-hour drive starting at 6 AM.  Set up was quick.  With fewer athletes there was only one platform.  The drive back home was equally uneventful, and I was home in time for dinner. 
 

[bencrush]

Great write up, sounds like a lot of fun!

[Hagrip]

Nice report and lifting, Sanjiv. Had fun pulling on what I could.

[marko]

I can't believed I missed this event in my backyard. Next time.

[Jedd Johnson]

13 hours ago, Broc2 said:

I can't believed I missed this event in my backyard. Next time.

Get on the Grip Sport International newsletter, so you never miss a sanctioned comp, brother!  Send me an email at [email protected] - Emails go out Thursdays at 3pm Eastern.

[marko]

2 hours ago, Jedd Johnson said:

Get on the Grip Sport International newsletter, so you never miss a sanctioned comp, brother!  Send me an email at [email protected] - Emails go out Thursdays at 3pm Eastern.

Email sent thanks for the heads up.