On top of the world
Sydney powerlifter Ron Delaney wins seventh world title
Ron Delaney is back on top of the powerlifting world.
The Sydney lifter captured gold in the Master 3 83 kg class while taking home a total of four medals from the 2018 International Powerlifting Federation Classic World Championships in Calgary on June 7.
What makes the feat even more amazing is that it’s his seventh world title in the 15th world championship he’s competed in. The event featured 750 competitors over 15 days and concludes on Sunday.
“You set a goal, you train and hope you achieve it,” said the 66-year-old. “Sometimes you don’t, other times you do. This time was a good contest for me.”
Delaney was awarded a bronze medal in the squat (391 pounds), silver in the bench press (265 pounds) and earned gold in his best event, the deadlift (546 pounds). That gave him a gold medal for his 1,202pound total performance.
At his last world championship in 2016 in Texas, he finished with a silver medal.
“Just before I competed, a fella approached me, it was Wayne Heffernan from Sydney,” he said of competition day last week. “He travelled from Sydney to see me compete. He said it was part of his bucket list. He was one of the organizers of the worlds that was held at Centre 200 in 1989 and I was a volunteer at that one shortly after I got into the sport.
“It’s a little bump before you go out to warm up. There’s somebody out there watching me pretty close, I better make sure I’m doing well.”
Delaney qualified for the world championship after winning gold at the 2018 Canadian
Powerlifting Union Championships also held in Calgary in February.
He has won more than 20 national titles since he began competing in 1993. Also at nationals, he was honoured with the Bill Jamison Award that is given to a CPU member that has excelled in competition at both the national and world levels, and someone who demonstrates perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to the sport of powerlifting.
A former manager with the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s waste water operations, Delaney is semi-retired and does consulting work for Victoria County and the Town of Antigonish.
He said training becomes more demanding the 6-10 weeks before competition, which requires a lot of time and sacrifice, but he is grateful to his wife, Cindy, his family and friends for their encouragement.
“I guess it’s for the love of the sport,” he said when asked what keeps him going in powerlifting. “The biggest thing is you set a goal and you go after that goal. You don’t let too many things get in your way to get there. It’s something you really have to keep in mind every day. Training for me went from maybe three or four days to five days out of seven, training for an hour and a half to two hours every time.”
He also gave credit to fellow powerlifter John Fraser of Sydney, who’s also an accomplished competitor on the national stage.
“The biggest thing about the sport is the focus and you need people to help you and you need to trust those people that are telling you you’re not doing something right and adjust all the time,” said Delaney.
Delaney is considering competing at another world event in the fall. The world masters equipped powerlifting championships will be held in Mongolia in October.