| This was the 12th year for the Central USA Open and Benchpress Championships in Cape Girardeau, MO. The competition this year was fierce and this is to be expected at any meet The Cissell Clan organizes. Their meets seem to draw the serious iron freaks out to perform their spectacular feats of strength. With over 50 lifters competing in the full power lifting meet and over 30 lifters competing in the benchpress meet.
How serious you may wonder are these lifters. Well, in the squat when you have to bring in someone like the mighty Pat Rankin to spot these freaks of nature, then one knows we are talking about testing the strength of some serious competitors. In the Ladies divisions in the Central USA Open we witnessed spectacular genetics by not only the Pledger Sisters (Lindsay & Sabrina) but also a set of identical twins Jennifer & Jessica Ray. Now I myself someone who aspires to be a serious power lifter am amazed at these young Ladies. But, when I get to witness the finesse of a mighty power lifter like Jerry Pledger squat. I see how the Pledger sisters became such gifted athletes. Jerry performs the squat like a methodically his technique is flawless and the bar is bending testing its tensile strength to the max. |
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| Now the Ray twins train in a gym that only a serious gym rat would care to dwell, let alone want to spend time in. I have heard stories of athletes who have trained in this gym in Granite City, IL. Now I would probably just chalk these up to tales that have been spun over the years but then I see a gifted power lifter like Maureen Post. Maureen bewildered the crowd with her feats of strength with a total of 300 kilos and a first place finish in the 148 Master's 1 division. Now while I am talking about this gym in Illinois there are some serious athletes being trained there like the young Justin Newsome. This is a very gifted 15-year-old competitor; Justin squatted 255 kilos breaking his own American Record. Justin benched 120 and set a new American Record dead lift of 255 kilos for an amazing 630 total. In his first year of lifting this man-child of 310 lbs. has managed to not only set quite a few state, National & American records, but also captured the 2001 Teenage National title in Chicago this year. He has a bright future ahead of him. |
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