Tara Green is a relative newcomer to competitive powerlifting. That didn't stop her from setting three new world records on the weekend.
Green, a 21-year-old from Prince George, started training in the sport about a year and a half ago. In Calgary on Saturday, she attended the GPC National Powerlifting Championships for the second time in her career and was one of the stars of the show.
In her weight class, in the junior female division, Green set new world standards in the squat and bench press, a new Canadian record in the deadlift and a new world mark for the combined total.
"I'm pretty excited," said Green, a member of the Xconditioning powerlifting team. "I was hoping to get [the records] but you're never sure.
"I was feeling pretty good and pretty confident and I just went out there and did my thing and everything turned out well."
In the squat, Green's opening lift of 475 pounds broke the old mark of 440 pounds.
In bench press, she pushed up 265 pounds on her third attempt. The old world record was 258.5 pounds.
Green's Canadian-record deadlift was 370 pounds, which topped her previous personal-best by 35 pounds.
Her overall total was 1,105 pounds, which gave her the national gold medal.
Green isn't about to bask in the glow of her accomplishments. In fact, she's already looking to the future.
"I just want to top [the records] next year," she said with a laugh.
Green had been a weightlifter for about five years before she decided to try powerlifting.
At nationals, Xconditioning was represented by three other athletes -- Jay Cook, Brad Priore and Mike Webber. Cook and Priore were awarded gold medals in their divisions, while Webber missed his opening squat attempt of 904 pounds and was eliminated from further competition.
Cook set national records in the squat (805 pounds) and overall total (1,716 pounds). His best bench press was 364 pounds and his top deadlift was 551 pounds.
Cook competed at a body weight of 181 pounds, well down from his 220 of last year. When it came to his results, cutting the weight didn't work out as well as he would have liked.
"I went in with thoughts of what I'm capable of and I didn't get them," he said. "It was still good enough for a gold medal and a couple of records but not where I wanted to be. I was hoping for the world record in the squat and the national record in the bench press."
As for Priore, he lifted 314 pounds in the squat, 215 pounds in bench press and 429 pounds in deadlift for a total of 957 pounds.
