IKSFA Holiday Open 2013: gifts and surprises

Last weekend was the first Girevoy Sport event ever hosted at QCrossfit in Randolph, NJ. Gym owner and organizer Eric Reyelt did the amazing by getting all of us out-of-town people in to the event and also preparing his own team, QKB Club. Co-hosted and officiated by IKSFA, this event was attended by lifters from several U.S. locations and clubs, a team from Kazakhstan, and World Champion Kettlebell Juggler, Coach Oksana Nikifor. The greatest gift for me was the chance to meet with my coach, Sergey Rudnev, for the first time in a year!

 

The whole gang after awards.

This event was an end-of-year gimme to some of us striving for specific ranks. Coach Nikifor dazzled us with an incredible juggling routine at the start of the event. Though there were a few surprises, (the most obvious being random glitches in the electronic timer technology, and a few clerical errors that left the correct medal recipients unrecognized at the awards ceremony) participating lifters showed good sportsmanship and support for each other throughout.

Many personal bests were achieved, including

Tatyana Potemkina of Team Kazakhstan (72kg weight class)

 World Record in Women's 24kg Snatch (170 reps)

Jeff Martone of Team IKSFA USA (100kg weight class)

North American Record in Men's 24kg Snatch (234 reps)

The Biathlon turn out was down-played due to a whole team withdrawal at the last-minute. Apparently they did not want to risk life and limb in the New Jersey snowstorm. Two lifters, one male and one female, did perform the double event and gave us a great demonstration of the mental fortitude required of GS Biathletes. Sergey Karpenko of Team Kazakhstan 32kg Biathlon (score of 179.5: Jerk 90 + Snatch 179), and Julia Lui, under coach Lorna Kleidman 16kg Biathlon (score of 172: Jerk 145 + Snatch 199).

These two shared the first and last flights with an intrepid first time lifter and the only competitor with two single events, Aaron Lassiter of Team OKC: 16kg Men’s Long Cycle (93 reps); 16kg Snatch Only (213 reps). These three kicked off the event in the first flight and finished it 3 hours later.

Long Cycle dominated the day with 35 participants.

A majority of the Men’s division lifted 16kg LC in a demonstration of the fun and easy nature of this event.  My teammate Slava Barsuk, under Coach Denis Vasilev, took the opportunity to practice the faster pacing required for greater achievements planned for early next year, lifting Men's 16kg LC x 97. Heavier loads were represented, and top numbers turned in by Mike Sanders of Team NJ KC with 20kg LC (81 reps), and Juan Pellot of Team KB Athletics with 24kg LC (69 reps).

With Sergey Rudnev seconds after the set.

Among the women we saw a range of weight loads from 8 – 20kg, again, representing amateur athletes starting into the sport, logging personal records with non-professional weight loads, or (like myself) making use of the soon-to-expire IKSFA rank table. I took this last opportunity to achieve MS with 20kg LC (123 reps).  My student, avid One-Hour Long Cycler Kimberly Hodes took the moment to earn her Rank 1 with 12kg LC (120). Meredith Riccardi, under the guidance of Coach Mike, put up the highest amateur (16kg) Women's LC numbers with 117 reps.

Kudos to my Colorado team mate Alison Zemanek, under Coach Slava Barsuk, on her first major event! She achieved Rank 1 her first time out with 16kg LC (88 reps).

There were 11 Snatch Only lifters and every one of them seemed to have something to get done. 

The lowest rep count of this group in both divisions earned the lifter MS rank. Marty Farrell of Team IKSFA USA put up 32kg x 109 reps. The highest rep count for Men’s Snatch Only is the above mentioned by Jeff Martone, 234 reps. Coach Sergey Rudnev of Team IKSFA Russia, played into the new international ranking table with a 28kg set yielding 167 reps.

The Women’s division kept up the pace, the highest coming from Lorna Kleidman of Team IKSFA USA, lifting 16kg x 232. Her student, Avery Wittkamp snatched 20kg for 119 reps and a rank of CMS. Amazingly, this respectable effort was the lowest Snatch Only rep count of the Women’s division. 

Starting in 2014 all AKA/IUKL affiliate organizations will be using the new table, which can be found here.

Results of this even are available on the QCrossfit website: click the "Protokol" link

From Colorado, Kimberly, Alison, Slava and me.

Placement awards for the Holiday Open were given based on co-efficient.* This seemed to have been a surprise to many participants, who anticipated the long ceremony of first, second and third place for each weight class/weight load based on rep count for each event. Last weekend's IKSFA event concluded with a fairly brief awards ceremony. Trophies were given for Men and Women for best in all events: Biathlon; Professional and Amateur Long Cycle; Professional and Amateur Snatch Only; medals given for first, second and third co-efficient factor in all events; Best Absolute Professional and Amateur Male and Female lifter (I believe this is based on rep count regardless of co-efficient); and medals given for ranks CMS, MS and MSIC.

*The co-efficient factor is the result of the entire weight load times the number of reps divided by the lifter’s body weight. With this method of scoring a lifter using less kettlebell weight may prevail over one with a heavier load.