Bench press team push extra hard to strike gold

Northland powerlifters took the Oceania 2010 Bench Press Championships in Christchurch by storm, claiming a swag of gold medals and breaking records in the process for the New Zealand team.
Age group world champion Trish Muldock, from Kaikohe, was once again in fine form  lifting a top weight of 77.5kg to crack the New Zealand and Oceania record in the master women's 50-59 52kg division.
Muldock's lift was 2.5kg heavier than the previous records held, but she was a way off her 85kg bench press, which won her the age group world title last year at the World Championships, in
 Taupo. She was named the best of the women lifters in her age
 division.
Kerikeri's Douglas Hope impressed onlookers when he  lifted 117.5kg, breaking the Northland record for his Junior Under-18 67.5kg class.
He also earned the Oceania title for the effort, and best junior lifter honours.
Kerikeri's Sandy de Grut's lift of 62.5kg was a personal best, and enough to win her the Master Women 40-49 52kg division, while in the open women's 90+kg class, Taari Murray, of Kaitaia, claimed the best women lifter overall title, following her best lift of 145kg.
In the master men divisions, Stephen Pickens, of Kerikeri,  won the 50-59 75kg class with his lift of 135kg, while Dargaville's Brian Froggatt earned a gold medal in the 50-59 82.5kg section, bench pressing a hefty 170kg.
Richard Ayton from Kerikeri also won in the 60-69 110kg class, hoisting 130kg.
The Northlanders were part of an overall dominant Kiwi team effort.
 New Zealanders won team trophies in every age group, making it a very successful campaign among contestants from Nauru and Australia, said Froggatt, competitor and secretary of the Northland Powerlifting Association.

 "Everyone did well, as hoped - and the training paid off," he said.
He  along with his teammates spent roughly six to eight weeks building specifically for these championships.