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PanAmerican Championships (Athlete Journal 36)

My achy wrist reared its ugly head during the PanAms last week, but at least I still have Worlds in September.

Terry Hadlow

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Saturday: Speed Snatch Day

One week until competition. My wrist was feeling not so bad today, and the lump was diminishing.

  • Speed snatch: 50kg for 2 sets of 6
  • Drop snatch: 50kg for 2 sets of 6
  • Pull, power snatch, and snatch, all from the floor: 50kg for 2 sets of 2
  • 70kg for 1 set
  • 80kg for 1 set
  • 90kg for 1 set
  • 1 pull, 1 snatch: 100kg, 105kg

I missed the snatch on the third set, but made the jump to 106kg because my partner made the 105kg, and made it pretty well. I guess I needed a shot of motivation. I finished with two sets of four reps in the snatch pull at 110kg.

Monday

My wrist was not feeling too bad for clean and jerks today.

  • Power clean, clean, a front squat, and a jerk: 50kg for 2 sets
  • 70kg for 2 sets
  • 90kg for 2 sets

I took 10kg jumps all the way up to 130kg and finished with a strong performance, making all four reps pretty well. It surprised me how well the jerks went up.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I just did the minimum amount of work, as my schedule was way out of whack.

Saturday: Competition day

Today I competed in the PanAmerican championships. During my snatch warm up my left wrist reared its ugly head and smacked me in the chops. It felt like I had never done any type of Olympic movement in my life. All the warm ups were a struggle, right from the empty bar. I started with 95kg, then to my chagrin, I jumped to 100kg and missed miserably. The third attempt at 100kg was successful but ugly.

The warm up for the clean and jerks and felt way better. I started with 130kg, which was easy. There was a little miscommunication break down on my second attempt and I failed to get to the platform.

My third attempt was a world record 137kg. The clean was easy. I can remember every clean I’ve made over 135kg since 2008, and this was by far the easiest of any attempt. All I remember is starting the pull off the floor and standing there getting ready to jerk. All the rest just blurred past. Unfortunately, I failed miserably at the jerk and almost rolled my left ankle. Oh well, I still have the Worlds in September.

Terry Hadlow got started in Olympic weightlifting in 1970 and is the only Canadian to have competed in senior nationals in five different decades – 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. Follow Terry’s journal here to learn about his approach to training and competing.

Terry Hadlow

About Terry Hadlow

Terry Hadlow started lifting in 1970 at the age of thirteen. He was a member of the CanadianJuniorNational team at seventeen, Senior B team at eighteen, and on the SeniorA team at nineteen. He was selected to three junior world teams and competed in two of them. His best finish was a tie for third place, but he lost on body weight. His best lifts as a junior were 140-167.5 in the 82.5 class. Terry won medals in the 1978 Commonwealth Games and 1979 Pan Am Games, and was selected to the 1980 and 1984 Canadian Olympic Games team. He competed in five senior world championships, with a best finish of twelfth in Moscow in 1983, with 90kg lifts of 155-185. Terry’s best lifts ever in competition were 160-190 and his best training lifts were 163-195 at 90kg.

Terry stopped lifting in 1991 age 33 and didn't touch a weight to Olympic lift again until 2005, at the age of 48. He went on to win the Masters Pan Am in 2006. At the age of fifty, Terry competed in the 2008 World Masters at 85kg in Greece and won with lifts of 112-135. In 2010 he went to Poland in the same category and won with lifts of 113-135. His best lifts in that division were 114-139. Those lifts were enough to qualify him for the Canadian Senior Championships as a53 year old. Terry is the only Canadian to have competed in senior nationals in five different decades -1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.

After that, Terry took a break from world competition and trained to compete in competitions in North America.His last competition was the 2013 Pan Ams inChicago, Illinois. He won with lifts of 108 (world record)- 132, for a total of 240 (also a world record).

Terry always takes the summer off training, as his summer work schedule just doesn't allow time to workout. In addition, there’s no training in September as that’s Terry’s time to go R.V.-ing.

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