Monday, March 27, 2023 saw one of the greatest powerlifting meets in history take place in Sheffield, England. The world’s best lifters came together to break as many world records as possible, with the meet holding the highest qualifying standards ever seen. Put on by the International Powerlifting Federation (IPF), lifters had to compete at the IPF world championships and accumulate a three-lift total equal to 95% or more of the existing world record total in their weight class. It’s no wonder then that the slogan put out by promoters was “Records will fall.” As such, only the best in the world were able to get to the U.K. to compete. The men and women’s divisions assigned winners not by weight class, but by how much they were able to break the existing world record total in their weight class, allowing for a true comparison between the strongest humans in the world today. And they didn’t disappoint, with a number of new total world records being set during the course of the meet.
On the women’s side, we saw new total world records set in the 47 kg, 52 kg, 57 kg, 84 kg and 84+ kg weight classes. In the 47 kg class, Tiffany Chapon of France set a new world mark with a total of 428.5 kg, beating the old record by a mere two kilograms. Along the way, she also set a squat world record of 161 kg and just missed setting a new bench record as well, as she nearly made a 99.5 kg bench press twice. The 52 kg and 57 kg weight class records were actually each broken twice. In the former class, the existing record was 438 kg. Both Noemie Allabert and Evie Corrigan shattered this mark, ending with totals of 454 and 460 kg, respectively. The 57 kg class total record of 495.5 kg was beaten by Joy Mnamani and Jade Jacob, who totaled 500.5 and 503.5 kg. Each broke the deadlift world record along the way as well, with Mnamani pulling 230.5 kg on her second attempt before Jacob tacked on an additional half kilogram with a 231 kg effort on her third attempt. Amanda Lawrence continued the trend, as she destroyed records throughout the 84 kg class, setting new marks with a record squat, deadlift and total. The American phenom broke the squat world record with a 246 kg lift, before adding a 130 kg bench press and record 268.5 kg pull to total 645 kg. Finally, Bonica Brown set world records for squat and total in the 84+ kg class, managing to squat 280 kg and total 680 kg.
Not to be outdone, the men at Sheffield held up their end of the bargain with a slew of world records themselves. Jesus Olivares stole the show by setting new world records for deadlift and total in the 120+ kg class. Olivares managed a monster 470 kg squat (that’s 1,036 lbs!), 272.5 kg bench and 410 kg deadlift to total 1,152.5 kg, obliterating the old mark of 1,105 kg by nearly 50 kilograms and winning the men’s overall competition. Jonathan Cayco and Gavin Aydin, both 93 kg class lifters, rounded out the top three by beating the existing world record with totals of 884 kg and 880 kg, respectively. Cayco snatched second place from Aydin on his final deadlift attempt, as he pulled 342.5 kg to jump his rival at the last possible moment. Cayco also beat his own existing bench press world record by pressing 239 kg on his second attempt, before chipping that mark with a 241.5 kg bench press on his third attempt.