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Last Saturday the 16th May 2009, we held our first ever Kettlebell Sport Competition. It was probably one of the first in the UK. We had 15 competitors ranging in ages and levels of ability. The venue was St Peters Eaton Square, Church of England Primary School near Victoria Station.

Registration and weigh-in was at 9:30am with the competition proper kicking off at 10am. We had 3 platforms set up with a 'lift' kicking off every 15minutes.

The competition was run according to a 'traditional biathlon' competition with all lifters competing in the jerk first and then the snatch later. Men competed in the 2 bell jerk, whereas female competitors competed in the One arm jerk.

Jerks were the first lift of the day:

At 10am we had Andy Marshall, Tim Joseph and Janke Bornebroek- the big boys taking the stage in the 24kg Jerk. Both Andy and Tim 'survived' the 10minutes with respectable numbers.

































10:15 saw the first battle between the Kettle "belles", Judit Rago, Lauren Betts-Bucke and Katarina Helcmanovska. The One arm jerk allows a one time switch. Katarina really flew out of the blocks in this event.


















At 10:30 on the platforms were Giovanni Sandrono, Mark Lawrence and Tommy Matthews. Tommy won the award for being the most fashion conscience of all the days lifters.



















10:45 saw Richard Bunto, Matej Hocevar and Joe Oliver battle it out. Matej came all the way from Slovenia and he put on a masterclass in the Jerk. Matej is a business partner and trains with Gregor Sobocan in his native Slovenia at their facility the 'Slovenian Kettlebell centre'. It was great to have Matej over and competing and I know that a few of the competitors from the weekend will be keen to reciprocate when team Slovenia hosts a competition in a month.


















At 11:00am it was my turn to compete. I was on the stage with Mark Hill and Olly Chapman. I hit a pb for reps but didn't go as long as I would have liked timewise. I think I may have gone a bit too hard too early- ah well, you live and learn!



















































At 11:15am it was time for the competitors to begin the snatches.

The lifting order was the same as the Jerks.

Andy Marshall and Tim Joseph battled it out for snatching supremacy. With Andy just pipping him in the final seconds of the snatch. This also meant that Andy took overall male honours with a total of 219, just beating Tims combined total of 217.























The battle of the Kettle 'belles' was also decided by the snatch. The girls competed with 12kgs in both the One arm jerks and the snatches. Katarina had a combined total of 311 reps, Lauren 288 reps and Judit 269 reps, Katarina had the highest combined total of all lifters on the day. Both Judit and Lauren at their body weights and with the numbers they reached would have achieved the World Kettlebell Clubs Rank 1- well done girls!


















There were other lifters of mention throughout the day. Matej's performance in the Jerk was a pleasure to see, he's technique showed the rest of us where we need to be. Young Olly Chapman did well as he competed having only attended our course a month ago. Even better was that most lifters throughout the day hit a personal best or two and you can't ask for much more than that.

Overall I was really happy with the day. Most of the Trojans Kettlebell Lifting Club competed. This was a lifting club I initiated when I got back from Greece to ensure as much as anything else that I go some Kettlebell Sport training in. I want to thank especially Tim and Joe, if it wasn't for them over the last few Thursday nights Trojan lifting sessions I know my lifts would have been less respectable than what they were.



















As mentioned above the Slovenian Kettlebell Centre is hosting a competition on the 20th of June that I think a few of us are going attend. Jonathan Lewis and CJ Swaby are hositng the UK Open Kettlebell Championships on the 18th of July. I will keep people informed of these events as we have more information.
BJ Rule

To view the full competition results please go to:
http://www.olfeducation.com/resource/22/