Elijah Ilo

Dylan Grant

Farm Powerlifting Classic 2023

Elijah joined Smith Strength & Power in May 2023. His training history had been that of a more Powerbuilding style but he wanted to get a coach and take Powerlifting more seriously as he knew he had potential to do well.

When we started his best lifts were:

- 205kg Squat

- 115 Touch & Go Bench

- 240kg Deadlift

We entered the Farm Powerlifting Classic in November 2023 where he achieved:

- 230kg Squat

- 130kg Bench

- 240kg Deadlift

For an outstanding 600kg total as an U74kg lifter in his first competition.

The competition honestly went better than expected with Elijah taking big risks for his third attempts on Squat and Bench. Both were 10kg more than we had ever achieved in training but he backed himself and it paid off.

Deadlift we played a bit safer after a stickier than expected 230kg 2nd attempt and decided to just go 240kg to make sure he secured the 600kg total.

Unfortunately, we had to enter the comp as guest since it was outside his district which meant he couldn't place, but he was by far the best lifter on the day with 88.90 GL points.

This is an amazing accomplishment especially considering 6 months prior he was at roughly a 550 - 560kg training total. Going from that to a 600kg 9/9 performance is no mean feat.

Greater London Divisional 2024

Elijah's second comp and his first competition not competing as guest which meant a chancing of actually winning. This and hitting a new PB was the goal.

On the day he managed:

230kg Squat (matched PB)

127.5kg Bench (-2.5kg)

252.5kg Deadlift (+12.5kg)

7/9, 610kg total (+10kg PB), 1st place in the U74kg class.

Unfortunately on the day a narrow miss on his third 235kg Squat and downward movement on his third 132.5kg Bench cost us some expected kilos after a good prep.

Nonetheless we achieved what we set out and took the win and a PB so a solid outing. Sadly there was no livestream and no one to record him to get videos.