WKC World Championships Chicago 2011

The Australian Kettlebell Club was very proud to be part of the World Kettlebell Club World 

The judges working hard

Championships this past weekend.  It was a big event, with around 90 competitors and action-packed day.

Biathlon was first up and there were some really notable performances.  Lori Doyle, coached by Fedorenko, hit Master of Sport after only a year of training.  Surya Voinar-Fowler from the Ice Chamber put up record jerk numbers (88 low hand score) with the 20kg bell.  Several women also hit Candidate for Master of Sport.  Scott Tighe got Master of Sport, and is only the second male in the US to do so in Biathlon.  Special mention also goes to Will Metcalf who got Candidate for Master of Sport only 15 weeks after brain surgery - what a frigging legend!

I placed first in 20kg biathon (under 60kg weight category) but wasn't thrilled with my numbers or the quality of my sets.  Shit happens, though, and I was still very happy to be there representing the Australian Kettlebell Club.

Scott Tighe on his way to MS

Two other Australians also competed, Dave Tabain and Natalie Turner from Leeton in NSW.  Both placed first in their events so the Aussies did pretty well all round.

Long Cycle was up after Biathlon and we got to see another couple of women hit Master of Sport with very classy sets: Jen Cord from the Ice Chamber and Canadian Misty Shearer.  And again a couple of Candidate for Master of Sport ranks were handed out.

Once the Long Cycle flights were done there was a quick StrongSport round, with Misty Shearer notably ranking with the 32kg.

Then it was Penathlon time.  The pentathlon is a new even with 5 lifts done for 6 mins each with 5 mins rest between lifts and multiple hand changes allowed:





Getting Ready for the Pentathlon



The Penathlon saw Ivan Denisov, absolute world record holder in all Kettlebell Sport events, beat his own record, scoring 2756 with his usual finesse - despite the work output he looked like he was so relaxed he could fall asleep at any moment.  StrongSport champion Andy Fitting put up an impressive score of 2064 and Cate Imes showed she's still got it with a total of 1198.5.

You can see the full table of results from the competition here.

It was a great day - nothing like getting covered in chalk and sweat and hanging out with other kettlebell fanatics.  Hopefully next year the Australian Kettlebell club will have a team together for the Worlds.  

Emily