Gibbs powerful presence in Perth

WORLD RECORD: Brett Gibbs just keeps getting better. PHOTO/FILE

CRACK Masterton power lifter Brett Gibbs obviously wasn't joking when he predicted he could come up with "something special" at this month's Pacific Invitational in Perth.

In an interview with the Wairarapa Times-Age not long after hearing that a silver medal achieved in the open 83kg division at the world championships in Salo, Finland, in June was about to be turned into a gold because of the winner, Jose Castillo of Ecuador, being disqualified after failing a second drug test, Gibbs said he was fully recovered from the quad muscle injury that had troubled him at that meet and was looking forward to the Perth assignment.

"The training is going extra well. If everything clicks we could produce something special," he said.

Well, "something special" hardly does justice to what Gibbs achieved.

He set world records in the squat and bench press, equalled his personal best in the dead lift and his overall total of 800.5kg was a world record as well.

Remarkably, all nine of Gibbs' lifts in Perth were counters. In the squat, he went from 265kg to 277.5kg and 285kg, in the bench press he went from 192.5kg to 200kg and 205.5kg and in the dead lift from 285kg to 300kg and 310kg.

The improvement on his world championship effort was substantial, to say the least. There he managed 270kg in the squat, 202.5kg in the bench press and 302.5kg in the bench dead lift. His total was 770kg, all of 30.5kg less than what he registered at the Perth expo where he beat the "magical" 800kg mark for the first time.

Gibbs' huge deeds in power lifting have won him many accolades, including the Senior Sports Personality and supreme champion trophies at the 2015 Wairarapa Times-Age sports awards.