Gainesville's Tim "T" Moon recently picked up where he left off last year -- winning bench-press competitions. Moon's latest victory came in the World United Amateur Powerlifting (WUAP) National Championships in Chicago when he claimed the national title in the Master's Men's 50-54 year old 140-kilogram/308.64-pound weight class, battling through illness and injury to do it.
Weighing in at 288 pounds, Moon easily lifted 327.5 kg, a little more than 722 pounds, on his first attempt to take the championship and add to his numerous other national and world crowns.
"First road trip of the year for me," Moon said. "My training has been really good this year up until a couple of weeks before the competition. I hurt my shoulder at work and was hurting going in. Also I was very annoyed to have sinus infections and a bad cough on the trip.
"I started with a light opener for me just to get on the board because I wasn't sure how much strength I had," Moon continued. "It was the only lift I got credit for. My second attempt was 352.5/777. I locked it out but was red-lighted for uneven extension. My final attempt was 365/805 in which I was close but could not finish the lift."
Moon says his next benchpress endeavor will be a mission trip to Costa Rica where he will be undertake several exhibition lifts and in sharing good news at a prison and several schools.
Moon, a resident of the Belmont community in Hall County and a 1982 graduate of Jefferson High School, added, "God has made me strong!"
