What Would Kettle Do?

Aleks is a dead man.

He knows, at least, he must have known what this tournament was called before he sent us there to compete.

The St. Petersburg Championship.

Jason, Nazo and I walked into the building and Jason said “isn’t this the place that is on the front of our manuals?”

A guy walked by us and I asked “ Isn’t that Jonny Benidze?”

It is and it was and we were in trouble.

This was to be a real championship with real world class lifters like Sergey Merkulin, Jonny Benidze, Sergey Rachinskiy, and Denis Vasiliev among them. The judges were high ranking enough to award Master of Sport ranking. All of these lifters were ready for battle. I had never been in a place like this before.

We all weighed in. We were waiting around for directions when I was handed a sign that said “USA” and Nazo was handed a sign that said “Japan”. We were all directed to line up and walked to the stage with music playing in the backround. Our names were announced with our countries.

Nazo was representing Japan.  She was not sure she would compete. She has not really trained in three months and here she is, at the Championship of St. Petersburg Russia, representing her country that has been wrecked by earthquakes, a tsunami, and a nuclear meltdown. She had to buy new clothes and new gear. Her parents and sister signed her belt for good luck. She looked at me and said

“I am going to Kirr Areks”

Jason and I are in mid training. We are focused on the end of June. We found out we were in this competition a week or so ago and here we are, representing our country, in the most intimidating setting imaginable.

“Aleks is a dead man”

Aleks had told us this was a small, local tournament, as in, one for high school kids and amateurs. He didn’t exactly lie, He just forgot to tell us that We were the high school kids!

Denis was trying his best to calm us down. He told us to just have fun, follow our training, don’t try to break any records. We were worried more about messing up and embarrassing Rudnev, Denis, IKSFA, OKC and now, with no notice, our countries!

I went up first. It was my jerk set. Rudnev told me to do 40 jerks. My best had been 37 in competition. I went up on the stage and the lights were shining bright on me and the other lifters. I was sweating until the clock started. They announced my name in Russian, they said UNITED STATES and I started. 42 reps.

Nazo went next. I had never seen her more nervous. She really didn’t want to get up there. It has been her dream to lift in Russia but not like this. Not after a flight from Japan to New York, to Finland, then to Russia. Three months in a hospital with no training and a huge dose of jetlag. She tied her best result 114 reps long cycle.

Jason was in the next flight. He went up to the stage 2 kg over his normal weight and up one weight class. The giant next to him said “Good Luck” in his thick Russain accent. “Chu Hi Bratan” 73 reps (plus 2 no counts).

My snatches were in the second to last flight. I was standing next to the legend Sergey Rachinskiy. What a thrill that was. He was doing long cycle and I was just hoping not to throw the bell into the audience. I was tired, jetlagged, nervous, I did 71 reps per arm in 9 min.

After my set the three of us grabbed our Country signs again and headed up to the stage for the awards. I got a silver medal, Jason got a bronze, and Nazo got a bronze as well as a trophy. Sergey Merkulin got his customary gold and a trophy. He turned and gave the medal to Jason and the trophy to me. What a Thrill!!!

Afterwards everyone was taking pictures and having a great time smiling and laughing. A few of the lifters asked us to sign their belts! The mayor of St. Petersburg wrote his name and phone number on Nazo’s belt LOL!!!

It was a wonderful day and a super fun tournament. We were scared to death and when we finished the relief was washing over us. Denis Vasiliev said that now our domestic tournaments should not feel so scary. He and the Sergeys said they have tons of stuff to go over with us throughout the week. It was amazing knowing that they were watching our sets and trying to coach us from the audience.

I have a silver medal to go with the bronze’s of my closest friends. They are so satisfying. I was terrified that my lockouts were no-counts but they were fine. Jason was thrilled to get a few no counts because he knew his set was real. Nazo got a bronze even though she was the only woman lifting a 12kg. We did not win golds across the board but our medals are real. Our numbers are real and we have something to build on now. I can’t believe we were just in that tournament.

We left and Jason said “That Just Happened”.

It is still sinking in. It was like a dream.

It was absolutely nothing like high school.

It was not a beginner tournament.

It was not “easy baby”

We love you Aleks and you got us good on this one.

But we will get you back. Maybe not today, maybe not this week, but soon, very soon, we will get you back bratan!

We walked out of there with our hearts chanting “We’re number 3, and 2, and 3!!!”

(today, comes the icecream)

Kettle,

This entry was posted on May 16, 2011 at 3:25 pm and is filed under Uncategorized . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.