Bug didn’t zap all his strength
Powerlifter finishes second at worlds after being bed-ridden
A bug knocked Steve Magistrale on his back but not out of the running for a medal at the World Powerlifting Championships in Mongolia.
A “crazy week” for the Welland resident and Niagara Regional Police detective sergeant started shortly after arriving in Ulaanbaatar, the central Asian country’s capital.
“I caught some bug and was basically bed-ridden Tuesday and Wednesday, and lost a total of 15 pounds,” Magistrale, 45, recalled.
Though he started feeling better and began eating on Friday, he was still down 10 pounds when it was his turn to compete Saturday morning.
Despite all this, the 20-year powerlifting veteran won the gold medal in the squat, the silver medal medal in the deadlift and wound up as the silver medallist in his division.
Magistrale called the medal a cure-all for everything he had been through in Mongolia leading up to Saturday’s finals.
“Given the horrible few days I had leading up to the contest, this
overall silver medal feels great,” he said.
Even though Magistrale was nowhere peak condition, he was only 7.5 kilograms away from finishing first overall and returning home with the gold medal.
Magistrale, who trains three days a week, three hours at a time at Top Dawgs Fitness and Training in Welland, came back from his second world championships and first since 2011 more inspired than ever.
“Being second best in the world right now sounds good but now I know I will be a world champion very soon.”
The Toronto native wasn’t athletic growing up but in high school started to be drawn to working out.
At Brock University Magistrale met several powerlifters who worked out at the YMCA in St. Catharines, including Jay Gemmel, Glynn Moore and Brian Duguay, who took him under their wing.
His first contest was May 1998 in London, Ont., and he has specializing in the three lifts — squat, bench and dead-lift — ever since. He has five Canadian championships to his credit, the last coming earlier this year in Calgary.
As long as he remains injuryfree Magistrale can’t see himself giving up powerlifting any time soon.
Nor is age — he turned 45 in June — against him as the window for powerlifting at worldclass level isn’t necessarily defined by age. Moore, his training partner, was at his peak competitively in his 50s.
At the national championships in Calgary, Magistrale squatted 750 pounds, bench pressed 550 pounds and dead-lifted 660 pounds in the masters 1 division, 40-49.
In Mongolia, he squatted 749.6 pounds, bench-pressed 540.1 pounds and dead-lifted 661.