Caleb Campbell

Dylan Grant

IPF Sub Junior World Championships 2023

Caleb joined Smith Strength & Power in mid April 2023. Having already qualified for Sub Junior Worlds at the end of August in Romania in the U74kg class, we had a big challenge ahead of us to get him ready.

Going in his Competition Bests were:

- 185kg Squat

- 80kg Bench

- 237.5kg Deadlift

502.5kg Total

Very quickly we saw fantastic progress right from block one hitting new rep PB's on Squat and Deadlift with Bench ticking along nicely.

This trend carried on throughout training right up until worlds and in prep we had hit a 200kg Squat, 82.5kg Bench and 240kg Deadlift so we were in a really good spot.

However, 3 weeks out Caleb suffered a pretty bad back injury out of the blue for Deadlifts which meant we had to take a more conservative approach to the final weeks or prep. Thankfully he did make a full recovery in time and was still in a great place to take on worlds hitting:

- 195kg Squat (+10kg PB)

- 82.5kg Bench Press (+2.5kg PB)

- 232.5kg Deadlift (-5kg)

510kg Total (+7.5kg)

Caleb went 7/9 with a great fight with 200kg on 3rd Squat and an extremely close 240kg on his 3rd Deadlift.

Whilst the comp was successful by achieving a PB total on the world stage Caleb expected more from himself. This is the nature of a world level sport. Caleb had to travel 40 hours from New Zealand to Romania and then 2/3 ish kg to make weight on the day.

Despite all this Caleb gave his all and still came out with a positive experience and result that we can build on. Not many can say they've competed on the world stage at 18 years old.

I know he will be back with a huge performance soon.

Canterbury Club Competition 2024

7/9

S:210kg (+15kg)

B: 90kg (+7.5kg)

D: 242.5kg (+5kg)

542.5kg (+ 32.5kg PB) @ U83 Junior.

Caleb and I’s second competition together after Sub Junior Worlds last year.

Making the move up from U74kg SJ to U83kg Junior with a successful off season and then followed by a good prep in which we fixed a lot of mistakes from the first time around.

The goals were to hit a big PB and to try to get the 565kg NZ nationals QT, which had been increased by a large amount this for 2024.

It was always going to be a tough task adding 55kg on to his total in 6 months but he gave it a huge effort and we aren’t far away. We’ll have another crack at it later in in the year and I’m very confident we will make up those kilos.

Overall still a solid first outing as an U83kg Junior and adding up to a 40kg increase in Calebs total since we started working together in April 2023.