PRESSING ON TO NATIONALS
17-year-old lifts his way to the top
POWER LIFTING: It’s the staggering feat that is making the power lifting community take strong notice.
Despite being just 17, St Mary’s College student Brenton Dierke showed precision beyond his years, getting the better of older and more experienced rivals at the GPC Australia Battle in Valhalla.
He came away with gold in the bench press (140kg), squat (240kg) and deadlift (240kg), all Australian records, and came up with another best in the overall category (620kg).
Dierke bettered each individual mark by 10kg, and was able to hold off the nerves of competing in the open division to land the huge accomplishment.
It also shows the growth he has experienced in a short period, after a 110kg bench, 160kg squat and 180kg deadlift at the Strength Precinct novice competition last year.
The young man fell just short of the mark earlier in the year at a previous competition, but was able to make the appropriate changes to etch his name in history.
“Weight cut was the main thing (for beating the record). I really stuffed up my weight cut at the start of the year and that really had a huge impact on my strength.
“I also changed my program and nutrition, supplementation as well. They were all huge factors in my current win.”
The love of the sport came from a background in boxing, a move that has proven fruitful, as he trains fives days a week to continue his rapid ascent in the sport.
“I was boxing with Smithy’s Gym for about four years,” he said.
“Typically being in a gym I kind of progressed myself into the sport and ended up at Strength Precinct.
“I only started last year. I was recruited by Chris my trainer from another gym, and then he took things from there, got me my proper program and set me up.”
As for the future, Dierke is eyeing off further national success, before hopefully taking his talents overseas.
“There’s not too much competition in the sport for my age group, it’s fairly small, so I like to verse other men and opens in general,” he said.
“I would like to progress to Perth for the junior nationals. I’m hoping to break the world records there, and if all goes well I’d love to compete in the Oceania Championships.”