GAINESVILLE — Led by local lifters and a large contingent of Special Olympic athletes from Savannah and Cumming, the Georgia Games Powerlifting competition returned to the Iron Beast Gym in Gainesville again Saturday.
“We were very happy with the Special Olympic turnout,” said Meet Director, R. Garry Glenn of Oakwood. “It’s the most we’ve had in several years. It’s also great when our local folks lift well, including some of my IronDawg teammates. I’ve said many times, some of the strongest people in the world live right here in northeast Georgia and these meets continue to bear that out.” Glenn, recovering from recent hip surgery, functioned as Meet Announcer and Director.
“We are still trying to grow the overall meet, particularly the high school divisions,” Glenn added. “We are deeply indebted to Marcell Allen, Stephanie Williams and all the folks at The Beast for continuing to make this happen.”
IronDawgs George Bradley of Gainesville and John (Duane) Manning of Cumming came home with gold medals on Saturday in the benchpress-only categories. Lifting with the special needs athletes, Bradley, who has cerebral palsy, won the Master’s Men’s 60-69 148-pound Equipped class with his press of 205, while Manning came back from a long layoff to take the top prize in the MM 40-49,198 lb. raw division with his lift of 315. Veteran Georgia Games lifter Clarence Smith of Cleveland, the dean of the athletes on Saturday at the age of 72, took home the gold in the MM 70+ 242 lb. bench-only class with a press of 235.
Other local competitors winning their class included a couple of Gainesville residents. In raw fullpower, 19-year-old North Hall alumnus Jake Bracewell totaled 900 pounds to win his 165-lb.weight class with a squat of 315; a bench of 200; and a deadlift of 385. In the Men’s Open 165s, Gainesville’s Nick Lawhead’s raw total of 855 (280-s/170-b/405-d) was good for gold. The heaviest fullpower total on the day went to Commerce’s Jonah Ingram as the 23-year old junior raw lifter totaled 1,285 (s-445/b-365/d-475). For the women, Marietta’s Rylee Johnson led the way in the raw Open 181-lb. division with a total of 750 lbs.
The heaviest lifts in the Special Olympics athletes’ categories went to Bradley in men’s bench-only as well as Savannah’s Amaris Spivey with a raw pull of 120 lbs. in the 198+ Junior Women’s class in deadlift-only. The heaviest push/pull (benchpress/deadlift) totals in special needs were for Savannah’s Emelda Williams in the raw Open Women’s 198+ category with 280; and her teammate Chuck Ries in the raw Men’s Open 275 class with 645. Special Olympics fullpower heaviest totals went to a couple of athletes from Cumming: Anna Blethen with her total of 370 in the raw Women’s Open 148 lb. division; and to Alex Merritt with 835 in the raw Men’s Open 181 lb. class.
