Let’s start our daily recap of the competition day again with Powerlifting. For good reason: when again will do you have the opportunity to watch a man lift more than a ton? When will you ever again experience this on the stage of the Philharmonic Hall, where usually violin players or flautists perform. You could do this on Wednesday at the Royal Forum of Music in Wroclaw, Poland.
Oleksii Rokochiy from the Ukraine lifted the total weight of 1105.4kg to win the Men’s Super Heavyweight Final. Just looking at the Squat lift, Joseph Cappelino lifted the heaviest load of 440kg. No-one asked for more kilos on their barbell. In the women’s final, Bonica Lough squatted 315kg and won with a total of 763kg for the USA.
But the sports on The World Games are not all about strength, or to cite IOC President Dr. Thomas Bach:
“This event celebrates the diversity of sports.”
In example Orienteering is about fast running and good navigation. For you have to read the map whilst running as fast as possible. Matthias Kyburz is good in both perspectives. He found gold in Trzebnica in the middle distance discipline. After his success he said:
“I was really running on my limit.”
So did Helena Jansson from Sweden who came in first in the women’s competition.
“Today was my day,“
she said.
And it was also the day of Adam Sedlmajer, winning the first gold medal for the Czech Republic. The 30-year-old athlete achieved title of The World Games Champion in the Waterskiing Slalom discipline. And it seems that it’s another good day for Germany: Geena Krueger won gold in the women’s slalom discipline on the river Odra. Natalia Berdnivka from Belarus also enchanted the judges with her performance in Waterski Trick.
Indoor Rowing is one of the invitational sports on the program, staged outside of Wroclaw at the venue Multifunctional Hall in Jelcz - Laskowice. A good choice from the perspective of the host country: Poland won gold as Artur Mikolajczewski crossed the virtual finish line first in 2000m Men’s Lightweight and Bartosz Zablocki came in second in the Men’s Openweight class.
