Thanks to the following sponsors. Team Uniform/Equipment Sponsor: Equipment Sponsor: Inzer Advance Design T-Shirt Sponsor: Impact Advertising Pictures Provided by Christy Newman: 1999 IPF Junior World Pictures Pages

The 1999 IPF Men and Women's Junior World Championships were held at the Nymburk Sports Centrum in a small town in the Czech. Republic. The meet area was held in the main Sport Centrum gymnasium. Over 25 countries in attendance to give each lifter the highest competition her or she has ever seen.

In any competition, making the lifts is important to being successful. The IPF Jr. World's magnifies this importance, one missed lift could cost you many places. An inexperienced IPF lifter normally goes through growing pains with being judged by some of the most technically difficult judges in the world. When considering the increased technical difficulty, it is never more prevalent then it is in the squat depth. Lifters are required to be precise and deep, deeper then most American lifters ever have gone, the judging is very hard but very consistent at the same time. This type of competition is truly a contest of increments and improving on your OWN lifts becomes really important.

Before I get to the contest results,  I must first mention the dedicated coaching staff. The US coaching staff accumulated 6 dedicated individuals from around the United States who took off time from their own busy life to spend a week of their own time and money to help out 19 fine American lifters compete on the highest lifting stage in their young lifting careers. Head Coach Dr. Larry Maile from the state of Alaska was coaching his second Junior World team in a row, passing on a opportunity on lifting at the Master's World Bench Press Championships the following week. Michael Kalter flawlessly ran the numbers for every lifter, for every session. He lives in state of Massacushets, but is a citizen of Norway. He is presently training for the Dutch National Championships. Coach Jim Ford in his second year as an assistant coach brought experience and knowledge that is always helpful in this type of contest. Coach Dr. Billy Jack Talton from Louisiana Tech University has coached many of the top international and national caliber lifters coming from the collegiate level. He is also a certified IPF referee. On a personal note, I returned this year as coach where last year where I was competing in the 220 class. In this last year I started and coached the Penn State Powerlifting team and am preparing for the 2000 Open Nationals. Sherman Ledford from Georgia, a first year coach at the Junior Worlds, was very helpful and picked up the intensity late in the week when the big boys started slamming weight around and was a huge help when it came to putting bench shirts on..
 

The 1999 IPF US Women's team had many young lifters. Of the nine lifters on the team, seven of them were still in their teens in classes that went up to 23 years old. Many of the US women have barely gone outside of the boundaries of their own states for competition, but in this competition they had spent a day or more traveling to go against some of the best young women lifters in the World. So you can see why it would easy to understand if the US Women's did not live up to their fifth place pre meet seeding. Well this young team didn't just live up to their seeding, they surpassed it, placing 4th, while breaking 10 different Women's American Records.

October 6th marked the first day of competition started with the Women's divisions.

The 97 lb. class women included American Stefanie McMillan from Louisiana Tech University. She is just another person among the fraternity of World Class Louisiana Tech lifters. It was her first time competing at the Jr. World's and she did well placing 3rd place overall behind a world record breaking Olesia Lafina from Russia and Chun-Ju Chen from Chinese Taipei.

The 105 lb.. class included 15 year old Jennifer Maile from the state of Alaska. Surpassingly this was Jennifer's second time at the Jr. World Championships and her experience showed. She placed third in her class, missing a gold in the bench on a 2 to 1 call, on her way to breaking the American Teenage Deadlift record and Total record and she was selected as the best Jr. Woman for the American team. She was out totaled by Hsin-Yi Chou from China Taipei and then by Russia's Olga Legotkina.

The 114 lb. class was won by Russian Tatiana Eltsova, followed by Kuan-Ting Chen of China Taipei. The lifter from the US in this class was yet another teenager from the state Illinois Andrea Cullum, she placed 6th in her class.

The 123 class gold medalist was Inna Filimonova broke a Jr. World Record on her way to gold over fellow Russian Elena Petrunina, third place finisher was Larysa Vitsevska from the Ukraine.

In the 132 lb. class Chinese Taipei's Hsia-Li Hsu, edged out the Ukrainian Oxana Sasko, who was followed by another Chinese Taipei lifter Hsing-Yang Cheng. The American in this class Jill Darling from the state of Alaska placed 5th overall and she was also a silver medalist in the Bench Press.

The 148 lb. class was dominated by Marina Kudinova who broke two world record squats on this lifting day, finishing with a spectacular 512 lb. squat. Lesia Guminsa of the Ukraine finished with a silver and Dana Kafkova of the Czech. Republic finished with a bronze. There was no American woman represented in this class.

Beginning of Day 2 October 7th - Continue of Women's lifting

The 165 lb. class was won by Norway's Ingunn Haakonsen who had a 7 for 9 day and pulled out 5 lb. win over Russian Olga Chumincheva. Gan Starodubtseva from the Ukraine took away a bronze medal. American Julia Loya from the Naval Academy placed 6th in her first World Championship competition, which surprised most of us because she had spent six weeks on ship over the summer to complete as part of her Louisiana Tech's Christy Newman was an alternate when the summer began and moved up onto the roster in July. She trained hard and placed a solid 9th place with only 2 missed lifts in very competitive class.

The 181 lb. gold medalist Alena Manakova for the Czech. Republic., which marks the first ever gold medal by a Czechoslovakian lifter in IPF Jr. World Competition. Nikolette Nanasi from Hungary took away second and Yoshiko Mure from Japan took away 3rd. Another young American lifter Katie Ford from the state of Texas took 8th place.

In the 198 class Pei-Jung Lee from Chinese Taipei took gold, Julia Kurina from Russia to Silver and O. Dziewiczkiewicz(say that 3 times fast) took away bronze. Sara Hoitink from the state of Wisconsin had excellent first Jr. World contest, hitting 8 for 9 of her lifts and placing a solid 6th place.

The Unlimited class was dominated by Chia-Sui Lee from Chinese Taipei. She broke a Open world record squatting 617 lb.., and she attempted a Jr. World record in the bench. When the competition was done she had totaled and astounding 1450 lbs!! The battle for second was won by Russian Elena Avilkina and Ukrainian Angela Torska took away bronze. The American representative Sarah Greenup got the attention of many, losing bronze on a body weight tie. She broke a Teenage American and Open American squat and total record with a 485 lb. squat and 1113 lb. total at the age of 17!!

The third session marked the beginning of the Men's divisions. The US Men's team included a mix of some IPF Jr. World experience and non experienced lifters. This team was expected to place 5th overall and that's just what they did.

The 114 lb. class included gold medalist Dariusz Wsola of Poland hitting 7 for 9. Kondo Tomoyuki of Japan took silver and Azat Rakhmankulov of Uzbekistan took away bronze.

The 123 was won by Chinese Taipei's Tsung-Ting, second place Nicolay Asabin from Russia and bronze was awarded to Frederic Tinebra of France. The American in this class included another Louisiana Tech University lifter Trey Cunningham. He took 5th in this class hitting a personal best in the bench press along with medaling in the pull.

The 132 lb. class was a very tight class after favored Amit Selberg bombed out in the bench press. At the end only 2.5 kilos or 5.5 lbs separated Gold and Silver. Taking away gold Andre Zviagintzev of Russia and Chinese Taipei's Sheng-Nan Yang silvered missing a 606 lb. pull for the win. Marko Kytola of Finland finished as the bronze medalist. The 17 year old Justin Maile from the state of Alaska finished 4th on a body weight loss. Justin would have easily made up the difference for a medal if it weren't for a 33 lb. overload on his opening attempt in the squat. With this experience another member of the Maile family is expected to come back for years to come.

The 148 lb. class was won by Evgeni Dolgov from Russia, followed by Jacek Spychala from Poland. American and returning medalist Jeremy Arias was selected the US Best Male lifter even with a poor day in the attempts department. Jeremy took away a bronze medal and just missed silver by 6 lbs. The other American in the class John Walters dropped from the 165 lb class to the 148 and placed higher then he was seeded, he finished with an 11th place.

The 165 lb. class had a Russian Roman Shabonov gold medal, while breaking the Jr. World Record in the bench with a 430 lb. lift. Anton Yatskov from Ukraine placed second and Rizvan Mamukov from Uzbekistan placed third. There were no Americans in this class.

The 181 lb. class was won by Sergey Gordeev who totaled 1763 on his way to victory. Ivan Shlizkhta from Ukraine was a silver medalist and Wieslaw Grabski from Poland placed third. Eugene Burrell from the US Naval Academy placed 8th in his class, a couple technical errors made by Eugene made a big difference to where he placed, his inexperience especially in the squat is where he lost  ground on his competitors in the always fierce 181 lb class.

The 198 lb. class was a dog fight. When on the rare occasion lifters finish with the same total weight, the body weight determines the winner. Well the top 3 places was determined by body weight. The total weight that was lifted was 1736 lbs.. The 194.4 lb. Ukrainian Alexey Rokochy took gold and fellow country man Sergey Didovik took silver weighing 196.8 lbs, missing on his last two deadlifts. Germany's Michael Seibel took bronze missing the win on the third attempt pull. Louisiana Tech's dominant puller Char Gahagen had a poor day in the pull which caused him to slip to sixth place overall. If he had made his second attempt he would have placed third in a 4 way tie.

The 220 lb. class was again dominated by the young Russian Nikolai Suslov, breaking no world records on this day. He hit 9 for 9 on his way to what seemed like a coasting 2044 total. Finland's Jani Palokangas placed second and Ukrainian Iidar Zakirov placed third. Team US had two lifters, Ted Depoe placed 8th. Californian Ed Koo learned a hard lesson on long flights and body weight loss, he bombed out in the squat, BUT Ed has another year to redeem himself at Jr. World's.

The 242 lb. class was medaled by Ukraian Dergey Karnau, silver Andrei Malanichec from Russia and bronze medalist Hannu Kopola from Finland.

In the 275 lb class Russian Vladim Bondarenko placed first along with his  Junior World Record 773 lb pull. Bache-Gabrilsen of Norway got second and Germany's Andy Dorner placed 3rd. He smoked a 783 lb.German National squat record on his way to bronze medal. The 275 LB class included two Americans. Returning Jr. World lifter Tony Cardella and Ryan Goldin who bumped up from the 242 class. Tony did not have the consistent day he normally has only going 5 for 9, placing him 4th. Ryan Goldin placed fifth overall and took a gold medal in the bench press hitting a 524 lb. press which is also a Jr. American record. Ryan was by far the lightest lifter in his class weighing just 248.

The super-heavy weight class only included 4 lifters. Roman Ukraintzev from Russia took away first in this class hitting a 2017 total, passing on two of his lifts. Andy Thompson of Great Britain took second, hitting 9 for 9. Returning US IPF Jr. World lifter Mike O'Donnel, bumped up two weight classes since the Jr. Nationals in June, which came to 36 lb. of body weight. This allowed Mike to take away four bronze medals, the most out of any American at this Championships. He hit personal bests in the Bench and the Deadlift and broke the Junior American 319 weight class records in the squat and total.

In conclusion the 1999 IPF Junior World Championships was quite successful for the US team. The lifters from all over the US and the world seemed to come together like old friends. I have found that many of the people you meet at this type of event become long time friends, even if you are battling for the win. You have special place in your heart for each other because you both survived what is The IPF Junior World Championships!
 

Copyrights @ 1999 Steve Mann. All Rights Reserved.
This page was built and published by Steve Mann with no compensation by the USAPL or any other organization.