February 15, Vancouver B.C.—The Special Olympics BC Burnaby powerlifters finished the competition with a hand full of medals. This competition also marked our new powerlifting coach, Henry Chan’s, first competition. The day started off with my (Herman) 4:30am alarm buzzard followed by a round of wakeup calls and pickups. We were so excited to participate in this competition that we got to the competition venue an hour earlier than any other teams. I believe it was the athletes’ exuberance that prevented them from cursing at me for turning them into a lark.

As usual, Burnaby powerlifter, Aaron Schlogl got busy helping the meet director setup the equipments. The competition started later than usual this year since there was an unprecedented turnout even though this was a non qualifying competition. Despite the crowd, the competition concluded with a complete success. Burnaby coaches Mischa Snopkowski and Henry Chan made this possible.

The lifting started at 10:30am with mixed results. Refereeing at this competition seemed to be noticeably stricter than previous competitions which resulted in numerous red-lighted lifts by several athletes. Being aware of this, the coaches and athletes redoubled the effort to ensure attention was given to details during the lift. The adjustments paid off! Following were the results.

	Weight Class	Result
Aaron Schlogl	52kg	Gold
Sam Langthrone	90kg	Gold
Ken Windsor	100kg	Bronze
Jason Price	110kg	Silver

The next competition is the provincial summer games in Abbotsford. We are ready to set some new records!

Video of the Deadlift event courtesy of Joe Racanelli.

Please visit the SOBC Burnaby photo album for more pictures.