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| Buckley, Solodov, Vasilev and Mishen open the event. |
Credit must be given to Denis Vasilev for serving as
translator for all the announcements between American and Russian communities.
I have tremendous respect for the Russian Girevoy Sport Association President,
Solodov, for making the trip to observe this event.
Wow, what a show! The DJ did his best to help us forget we
were competing on an international playing field. Loud rock music disturbs my
calm, and that was my personal least favorite part about the event. Naturally,
I could not expect to find the same peace of mind I seek at home, so I take the
ongoing craving I had for still space to be a sign that my inner cultivation is
not complete. As was mentioned repeatedly in interviews by Olympians, and
demonstrated by the Russian National Team lifters present at this event, we
need to be ready to perform at our top level under all conditions. That’s what
makes a champion.
The 5-minute set lifters started us off at a super high
pace. In general, 5-minute sets are “entry-level” events that allow multiple
hand-switches for Snatch and one arm lifts, and count just about anything that gets overhead as a good rep. That said, seasoned lifters enter these events to achieve rank and medals with
clean sets (only one hand switch), including Ivan Denisov. I will most definitely do a 5-minute set myself in the future.
This World Grand Prix event drew an exceptional group of Elite level
lifters. They each took the opportunity to do an “exhibition” set. A some members of this group focused on breaking personal records for reps with amateur
level kettlebell loads.
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| Vasilev and team mate Pavel Petrov. |
Okay, you have to consider 24kg amateur. Both Sergey
Rachinsky and Denis Vasilev put up ridiculously high numbers.
Rachinsky showed
us 151 Jerk and 230 Snatch reps (which came down to an all-out sprint against
Aaron Guyett’s 222 rep 24kg Snatch set in flight 9) on day one, and a nice and
slow 101 rep. 24kg Long Cycle reps on the second day.
His student Denis Vasilev
reserved his effort for a 10-minute 24kg Long Cycle sprint, getting 152 reps
total. For the record, this is just over the known speed limit for double Long
Cycle.
Another member of the super-fast-with-a-drop-weight club was Sergey
Mishin, who ripped a 246 rep 16kg Snatch Only. This sort of
thing is not meant to represent the specific quality of Girevoy Sport lifts,
but rather demonstrates the excellent speed technique and physical conditioning
of World Champion athletes.
In contrast, Ksenia Dudhenkina performed a
technically perfect 201 rep 22kg Snatch Only, dropping 2kg off her World Record
Snatch Only load for the event.
Sergei Merkulin demonstrated World Champion technique with
32kg Snatch Only x 160. In the final Long Cycle flight loaded with 32kg
kettlbells, Evgeniy Goncharov kicked out 63 reps well ahead of the 10-minute timer. This
reminded me of the Super G ski racer who did her run first and still won Gold.
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| Merkulin, Khvostov and Farrell. |
In the other extreme corner of Elite were examples of
higher-than-professional weight loads perfomed as if they were normal. The King
of Kettlebell Sport, Denisov amazed us with 36kg Snatch Only x 156 and a
5-minute 2x36kg Jerk Only x 85. Aleksander Khvostov pulled out the white
kettlebell for a demo of 40kg Snatch Only x 100.
The Russian community had easily identifiable lifting
uniforms and team sweat suits (that’s classy, I tell you). Clubs from all
places wore their coach’s logos or team shirts. The flight announcements
introduced the lifters, their rank achievements and their team affiliation,
another detail that brought the California Open up to World Class standard.
Speaking of teams, this event provided an amazing
opportunity to see how teams work in various ways with such distinct
personalities. The teams were most evident by their t-shirts. The one thing I
don’t quite understand is why women wear sports bras as their shirt on the
platform. Maybe it represents athletes from CrossFit, maybe it’s the loud rock
music… just a thought.
One out-of-country team that made an impression was Sistema Movimento Integral Acadamia (SMI)
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| Me with SMI Brazil! Photo by Luciano Oliveira. |
making MS rank with Jerk Only (28kg x 83), just imagine 61.7kg Davi Oliveira on the platform with the 24kg Biathlon next to team mate Maricelio Correla, same event, same load. Not impressed enough? SMI Brazil’s Roberto Rocha stepped up to a 28kg Biathlon, completing 72 Jerks and 107 Snatches. These folks have put some time into this sport. On the second day the entire team crushed the 24kg relay (Julia and Valentina used a single kettlebell while the men pushed double 24) with 207 repetitions in 15 minutes.
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| Kat Helcmanov. Photo: Jennifer Tan. |
Individual athletes really stood out, namely self-coached
Paul White of Way of Art, New Zealand, who lifted 32kg Biathlon the first day
and 32kg Long Cycle the second, earning MS rank for both events. Why not join
forces with the League of Extrordinary Jerks to finish the meet with a 3-minute
leg of 24kg Jerk Relay?
Another stand out individual and sole representative of
Commando Temple Gym, UK/Slovakia, was Katarina Helcmanov, under coach Gregor
Sobocan. Katarina earned every woman’s respect with her 147 rep, 20kg Snatch
Only set, standing side by side with world-famous Dedukhina. On day two
Katarina earned the women’s absolute lifter award after 24kg Long Cycle x 120
repetitions (that’s MSIC if you don’t have a KETAcademy rank table handy), but
not before working the middle leg of 2x24kg Jerk relay for the League of
Extrordinary Jerks.
Amazingly, I met facebook friend Jennifer Tan the sole
competitor from Singapore at this event, a true testament to the supportive
community offered at OKC/Juno Fitness hosted events. Jennifer came with a 16kg
Long Cycle set and to connect with her online coach, Sergei Merkulin.
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| My Snatch Only set. Photo by Jennifer Tan. |
Having prepared a Snatch set with “the next weight up,” I
was ready to see my deficiencies. It is a very vulnerable thing to take a
first-time-ever lift to competition, especially one as big as the California
Open. Even though I was going with a very small group from Colorado, there was
great support for my first effort with 20kg Snatch Only. With Sergey Rachinsky
as my judge, I knew the stars had already determined my set and didn’t even
watch the rep count until the end. Unfortunately I lost feeling in the first hand before
half-time and ended up folding early with only 107 reps, just 3 shy of the MS
rank. Considering I did my own programming for this event I feel good with this
result, and look forward to improving the set in upcoming events.
The Hero of this event for me is my student, Kimberly Hodes
(that’s Hodees, with one “e”), who braved her first 16kg Long Cycle in a weight
class with one other competitor! She truly has a sporting attitude about her
results: this event provided a baseline number, not to mention Personal Records
of rep count (48) and time (just shy of 10 minutes) with the 16kg bell. Her
pay-off was a Silver medal (amazing on so many levels) and Rank 2! She lost to
a more seasoned 16kg Long Cycler from Team Blackburn who definitely earned the
Gold with 99 reps.
Way to end your first year in GS, Kimberly!
Last weekend gave me deeper respect for the integrity Orange
Kettlebell Club brings to Girevoy Sport. This organization is truly focused on
bringing new lifters to the sport, seeing lifters from all clubs improve and
meet their goals, compete with a fair sporting attitude, and they attract
athletes that can show us how World Class lifting looks. They gave away great
swag from their sponsors, co-efficient cups for both Biathlon and Long Cycle,
as well as the first ever Sergei Mishin Cup to the best overall male and female
lifter. In his closing remarks, Mr. Solodov announced that based on this competition, it appears that Girevoy Sport lifters in America are ready to compete in Russia for Gold medals!
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| Bring an extra luggage if you plan to win one of these! |
Even those of us who did not get the one of these beautiful
prizes got well-made medals for first, second and third place. When I say this
is “well-made” I mean this is a weighty piece of bling that could be used for
self-defense. Though with the massive circle of friends surrounding OKC, it is
more likely to be a gate pass at any given club or concert out of respect for
the Awesomes.
I hear that in Russia athletes with Master of Sport or
greater are afforded certain privileges.
What these are I do not know, but if there are any inherent privileges
for MS athletes in the US, my feeling is that they are to be gained through OKC
and it’s sister organization, Juno Fitness. This idea is yet to be proven, so I
will continue doing research and report in future blog posts.
Thanks for reading!
Chu-Hi!
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