Hallmond pulled his weight for region

At the recent Northland Powerlifting Association annual meeting, the incumbent president, Stan Hallmond, from Whangarei, stood down and made way for Kerikeri's Anthony Warren.
The move was significant because Hallmond has been the association president for 30 years and felt that it was time for "new blood".
It is doubtful many sporting bodies would have an administrator of the quality and enthusiasm of Hallmond. A life member of the Northland body, he was also given the same accolade by the National Powerlifting Association for services to the sport.
In his early years, Hallmond's interests lay with rowing, rugby and body-building. Born and educated in Whangarei, he started weight-lifting in 1974 after travelling to Wellington to watch a small team of North- landers compete at the national championships. This was to signal a fine career in weight-lifting and then powerlifting.
His first competitive lift was at the association's club rooms in a prefab in Riverside Road. Here he crossed swords successfully with Dargaville's Les Liggett, initiating a good-natured rivalry that was to last for years.
In 1976, on the advice of Precious McKenzie, he gave up weight-lifting to pursue a career in powerlifting. This advice from one of the country's greatest lifters bore fruit when Stan won a silver medal in the same year at the North Island championship.
In 1979, Hallmond contested the 125kg division at the national championships totalling 647.5kg to win his first NZ title; becoming the first Northlander to win a national title in powerlifting. He repeated this at the 1980 national championships, totalling 665kg but in the 110kg class.
In 1980, he was elected Northland president. The growth of the sport since then has been determined largely by his energy and determination.
One of the high notes of his distinguished powerlifting career was his selection in 1982 in the NZ team to compete in Australia. As part of a 12-man squad, Hallmond competed in the 110kg class in a match against Victoria. He placed second with 710kg and became the first Northlander to earn a place in a NZ Powerlifting team. In August 1980, he won his third national title in the 110kg class with a career best of 712.5kg.
Hallmond also spent many hours and trips to Auckland as an administrator of the sport at national level.
Between 1984-87, he was elected vice-president of the national body. He was selected as manager of the NZ Women's Powerlifting team that competed in Adelaide in 1983 and then went on to fulfil the same task at the Women's World championships at Perth.
In April of 1988, Hallmond lifted for NZ against Australia in the masters division. He won the 125kg class setting a NZ squat record of 257.5kg. This event featured the first father-daughter combination in the same event in powerlifting at international level. Hallmond's daughter, Shona, won a silver medal in her class and topped it off by setting a NZ open class record in the squat.
By 1988, Hallmond reached international level as a referee. He also acted as coach of the NZ team at the world championships in Perth the same year. In 1991, he managed the NZ team at the Oceania Powerlifting championships in Auckland. The next year, he was selected as coach and referee at the World Masters in Sydney.
He surprised everyone by coming out of retirement and placing fifth in the 125kg class at the same event. His efforts during 1988 saw him as co-winner of Northland's first DB Sportstar Award.
In 2001, Hallmond was elected as coach and referee at the World Masters in Moose Jaw, Canada. In this city in south-central Saskatchewan, he was filled with pride as he watched his wife, Julie, win her division along the way setting four world records.
More recently, Hallmond has occupied himself with bench pressing.
His huge upper-body strength, which has resulted from years of hard training and manual labour, has diminished little with the passage of time.
Buoyed up by the success of his wife, Hallmond was off in 2002 to the World Masters Bench Press championships held in Texas, US. He came close to a medal, placing fourth with a NZ record of 180kg in the 50-plus 125kg class.
In 2005, he tried again, travelling to Zlin in the Czech Republic.
Once again, he recorded an impressive 180kg in the 125kg masters division.
Last year was a milestone in Hallmond's career. Those who believe that he has gone from the sport had better think again.
It is highly likely the clink of weights will continue for some years in the basement of his Kamo home.