Euro write up

Monday
Silly o'clock in the morning at Amsterdam airport...a few minutes left on the clock so here I am posting before I catch a 1050 flight back to Bristol. Then feed the cats, pack orders and crash and burn in that order.Bare in mind thesestupidkeyboardsticks(yes) and I'm tired. I'll get it all down asap.

This weekend I won my second (and consecutive as I won the last one) European Grip Championships. It went exactly as predicted.I hated every minute of an otherwise uneventful journey out. More on that later,arrived well enough then had problems using my mobile in Spain (+ or 0... why would it not work!!) eventually the host and promoter found me (no doubt looking moody ha ha). The Hotel, as I later found, cannot understand emails (2 nights with breakfast morons, not one without grrr). But I'm wasting time so lets get to the show.

Saturday
There was, as per, 5 events. This time it was grippers, 2-hand pinch, thick bar (axle) double over hand deadlift, one hand deadlift and weaver.

Grippers: I came 2nd. Although I closed a harder gripper with my right Gabriel Sum closed a better combined total to take the lead but by a small margin (important as we will see). There were no mistakes unlike the last Euros.

Scores (left/right and total)

Right Hand
1. Steve: 3.54
2. Gabriel:3.45
3. Jorge: 3.17
4. Stew: 3.1
5. Pablo: 2.84
6. German: 2.7
6. Rene: 2.7

Left Hand
1. Gabriel: 3.59
2. Steve: 3.26
3. Jorge: 2.84
3. Stew: 2.84
5. Pablo: 2.32
5. Rene: 2.32
7. German: 2.19

Total:
1. Gabriel: 7.04
2. Steve: 6.8
3. Jorge: 6.01
4. Stew: 5.94
5. Pablo: 5.16
6. Rene: 5.02
7. German: 4.89

Two hand pinch I killed this. The next best was Gabriel's 88-kilos or so (88.85kg) and I did a mahoosive 112+. This made me not just 1st but first by some margin. Indeed, I won with my opening lift (97??) and then carried on to make the damage worse. I think I went 97.2, 102.2, 107.2 and ended on the 112.2. The Spanish humidity made an attempt at an WR not a great idea.

Scores
1. Steve: 112.2 k
2. Gabriel: 88.85 k
2. Stew: 88.85 k
4. Pablo: 79.35 k
5. Jorge: 71.35 k
6. German: 64.35 k
7. Rene: no valid lift

Double over-hand thick bar deadlift. I followed this pattern again by opening with 165-kilos where the 2nd place guy ended up, then doing 180, 200 and finally taking 216kg. As it was not an official IM Apollons Axle it may not count as a record but I'll let everyone else worry about that (too tired to give a **** right now). The official scores show Gabriel pulling 170-kilos for his final best effort (a bunch of guys bombed as the weigh fell from their hands) but I opened with 5kg less!

Scores
1. Steve: 216 k - New European Record.
2. Gabriel: 170 k
3. Stew: 150 k
3. Jorge: 150 k
3. Rene: 150 k
6. Pablo: 142.5 k
7. German: 130 k

One hand deadlift (thumb over): again the same pattern. Most were done and dusted at 120kg and I'd pulled WR level 152.5kg once in training. So I did 120kg, 130kg, 140kg and then (as above) using the promoters record breaker discs (so-called little gems of 125g, 250g and so on) I pulled a tiny bit more than the old 151kg WR. So now I had potentially not only a EU record (?) but a WR in the same meet. One might say it was going according to plan...

Score
1. Steve: - right hand 151.95 k - New World Record
2. Gabriel: - left hand 120.45 k
3. Pablo: - right hand 112.95 k
4. Stew: - left hand 110.45 k
4. German: - right hand 110.45 k
4. Rene: - right hand 110.45 k
7. Jorge: - right hand 105.45 k
Weaver to the rear: Some of the guys had been a little confused by the rising bar rule earlier on and now Gabriel was thrown by the clearly explained 'if you used you right on the one hand deadlift you must use your left or vice versa. Speaking to him he said that he'd only trained one hand- wtf? I'd been nagging/advising fellow Brit Stew Killick, throughout and now, with this event his anyway, here was his chance to get a few percentage points ahead of Gabiel and take 2nd overall behind me. So it was, Gabriel did 4kg and with everyone else out, it was just me and Stew left. Using my left hand (one hand deadlifting with my right) I did enough for another 2nd place (3 firsts and 2 2nds meant I was about 80+pts ahead of the next guy). Not only had I won but it was a British 1 and 2 so our team slaughtered Johhny foreigner ha ha

Score
1. Stew: -right hand 7 k
2. Steve: - left hand 6.4 k
3. Rene: - left hand 5 k
4. Jorge: - left hand 4.75 k
5. Pablo: - left hand 4.5 k
6. German: - left hand 4.25 k
7. Gabriel: - right hand 4 k
More when fed, watered and rested...

Final Results:
1. Steve Gardener (England): 487.99
2. Stew Killick (England : 405.59
3. Gabriel Sum (Germany): 394.22
4. Jorge Gonzalez (Spain) : 355.54
5. Pablo Garcia (Spain) : 348.42
6. German (Spain) : 320.29
7. Rene Kirschner (Germany : 282.44

By teams:

1. England: 13 points
2. Spain: 9 points
3. Germany: 6 points

As Jose says elsewhere we then went out with Feleces (?) a huge Spanish powerlifter and loader for the day and talk utter shite and BS (as one does) about all things strength. The beer and burgers helped. I had an issue with the hotel in that they'd emptied my room even though I had booked for TWO NIGHTS!! via the internet. This was followed by being out of the room at 12 noon on Sunday which meant I literally sat around, slowly getting sun burnt, until my pre-arranged pick up six hours later. As my phone battery had died it was all I could do.

All was well at Madrid airport but the 11 hour wait at Amsterdam is BORING!! and time I will never get back. Then, minutes after we took off (around 11am the next day) we had to make a u-turn over the North Sea as an engine was playing up. That's a first. I started goofing off and laughing (scenes from Father Ted etc played through my head) otherwise my tired ass, gritty eyes and surly demeanor for what was an already over long journey would have meant a popped blood vessel.

Regardless of my usual old age grumblings on the journey, the bed, etc I must pass on my thanks to Jose. A stellar promoter and ref and he took me everywhere I needed to go with good grace. Cheers Jose.