This Sunday, at Newport Harbor High School, USA Weightlifting sanctioned an Olympic lifting meet which means the two Olympic lifts, the snatch and the clean and jerk were performed by mostly high school kids from Newport Harbor and Aliso High. Notable among the entrants were a couple of "old guys".

Steve Serrano and Brent Oakeson of Crossfit Marina took part in the competition which calls for 3 lifts in each event with the best lift in each combined to give the final total (in kilos). Brent got 164 kilos (360.8 lbs) and Steve came in with with 140 (308 lbs). Both got first place medals in their respective weight categories as Masters athletes. The day’s best lifter was another Crossfitter, who is the strength and conditioning coach for UC-Riverside, 32 year old Josh Everett who totaled an amazing 268 kilos in both lifts (589.6 lbs) from a bodyweight of 180 lbs.

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That is Josh getting ready to clean and jerk 155 kilos. (Sorry for the crappy cell phone picture. My camera took an unrepairable fall).

As good as the Crossfitters were, the day belonged to the kids. There were some freakishly strong kids, many with good form, and we are talking about in the 155 lb range. Most of the lifting was power snatches and power cleans but there were a few athletes who pulled themselves into the squat and that included the few women who competed. There were some very impressive lifts posted with some showing extra grit to successfully complete new PR’s.

I had only planned to stay for a few lifts but it was that much fun to watch, although competing would have been better.

After talking with Steve about my back, he had a more accurate take on what happened two weeks ago and doubted that it was a herniated disk, which was great to hear.

Filed under: Sports

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