Three world records for Masterton lifter

HUGE EFFORT: Brett Gibbs, three world open records in Melbourne.

MASTERTON powerlifter Brett Gibbs was in sensational form at the Pacific International invitational event held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre last weekend.

Competing in the open grade of the 83kg division for the very first time at a major competition Gibbs, 24, set world records for the squat, bench press and overall total and was very close to a personal best in the deadlift as well.

And if that's not remarkable enough, how about the firm conviction from the man himself that he is capable of doing even better come the world championships in Finland in June.

"There's more there, much more," Gibbs told the Times-Age yesterday. "It's all about everything falling into place at the right time, and hopefully that will happen at the worlds."

It was his bench press effort of 200.5kg which most pleased Gibbs about his Melbourne performance. It was all of 16kg more than he had ever managed before and came after a slight change in technique and a more rigorous training regime.

"I realised the bench press had been a bit of a weakness for me so mainly it was a case of working harder to bring it up to where it should be," Gibbs said.

"I'd never before dedicated a whole training session to it and started doing that weekly, and it's obviously paid off. It was awesome to get over the 200kgs mark."

It was at his second attempt that Gibbs reached his winning total of 280.5kg in the squat, a personal best by 0.5kg.

He then tried for 285kg with his last lift there and almost pulled it off too. "I stood up with the bar but was shaking a bit and fell forward just enough to count it out. It was a bit disappointing, but that's the way it goes."

Gibbs went into the Melbourne event with a best dead lift of 305kg and came up just short of that at 302.5kg after struggling to get a decent grip on the bar, something which he believes was probably due as much to exhaustion as anything else.

"I was a bit tired and I found it hard to hold on. In the end I was pretty happy with what I got."

The overall total for Gibbs was a staggering 783.5kg, a world open record and well above his personal best of 770.5kg registered when he dominated the junior division of his weight group at the world championships in South Africa last year. There he also won gold in the squat and deadlift and a bronze in the bench lift.