May Open
-2024
Niamh Gallagher
Niamh's Second Competition
It's been 8 months since we last stepped onto the platform with this particular inpatient, since then we've fallen out about 20 times, "dropped out" twice and read about 30 different messages the wrong way. But despite all of this, we pulled off an absolute blinder of a comp with Niamh in this comp. Going into this competition, Niamh was really worried about the IPF members in her category, from a little bit of "sporting espionage" she had convinced herself they were all going to absolutely demolish her. There was talk of dropping out. However, I'm so glad she didn't, she did an absolute credit to herself and me, keeping up and even beating some opponents in the class. Despite no medal, this was an absolute masterclass from Niamh, showing how far she's come as a competitor already.
Once again, squats are the most nerve wracking bit of a powerlifting comp. Stepping out on stage for your first lift is daunting, especially with the thoughts rushing around prior to the competition. However, Niamh came out opening with her previous comp pb, 120kg. Niamh absolutely smoked this lift. We went up to 125? Smoked it. Then the training pr, 130kg. It was a slow one, not the cleanest squat by any means. However, Niamh kept her composure and finished the rep strong, despite a very forward tip. A good rep by any account.
You can see the forwards tip, this is once again informing our choices going forward in programming. We're trying to get her a better relationship with her midfoot, so that she doesn't push her bum back as much to produce force. This one is the bane of any lifter's life.
We weren't going to have a repeat of "benchgate" in the last comp. So we made sure to practice tonnes of paused reps and make sure the weights we picked wouldn't become too difficult under competition scrutiny. Niamh showed a true development as well, remaining calm and level headed going into press. Last time I think we lost focus of the end goal. This time? We opened with 7.5kg more than our comp pb. Niamh is also a great bencher, I can see her doing really crazy things with this lift in the future. 62.5kg - hit. 67.5kg hit. 70kg on the bar for our final attempt? Nailed it. That's now 6/6 on squat and bench, giving us a really good sign that Niamh is developing technically, not just strength wise.
This rep was great, I honestly think the extra time spent learning a wider grip was really well spent. You can see Niamh is much wider on the bar than the first time round - with a tidier arch and good leg drive. I really do think we're onto something special with this little presser.
With 6/6 lifts overall, we went into deadlifts confident this time, knowing we had a really good chance at making up some kilos. Niamh is a stronger deadlifter than she is a squatter, although we're working to change that, so we knew we could suprise some of the competition.
140, 147.5, 152.5 all great reps. No real slow grind at all, despite the fact that tends to happen in training quite a bit. We timed our warmups perfectly here, leaving her last rep to the last minute so that we could go out fresh but not cold and I think it benefitted us massively going for the final rep.
This final rep was amazing. This is an alltime personal best for Niamh, it moved quick, very little stick and minimal backbend. This was a good one, and sealed out the competition having gone 9/9 throughout. Massive achievement, hitting every single thing we had planned to.
We're heading for September again after this one. Niamh has the powerlifting bug all over again, can't wait for whatever slabbering matches we have in the run up to it. Ah well, it'll all be worth it in the end.
Uppa Niamh.