American 77kg weightlifter Harrison Maurus is currently on a war path, as he continues his prep for the 2017 IWF World Championships. With less than four weeks remaining before Worlds kicks off, Maurus is crushing PRs like they’re nothing. This past weekend, Maurus surpassed three big PRs in one Instagram video.
Check out the video below that highlights Maurus’ latest lifts. The first PR comes in the form of a 190kg clean, front squat, and jerk. Second, Maurus hit a 195kg clean & jerk, which is a significant lift. This tops his current Youth and Senior American records (and Youth World Record) by 3kg, and remember Maurus is only 17 years old.
Lastly and not shown in the video, Maurus PR’d his back squat by hitting a 255kg double and a 265kg single.
Maurus coach Kevin Simons – often an active member on Reddit’s r/weightlifting page – made some suggestions in the recent Maurus thread of what we might see from him at Worlds. One poster asked if we could potentially see a 200kg clean & jerk at Worlds and Simons said, “That is the goal! He had a very slight reduction in load last week but we pushed hard this week. A bit easier week next week to clear the fatigue then ramping up in intensity and down in volume leading into Worlds.”
This will be the first time Maurus takes the World Championship stage, and he’s showing that he means business. To top it off, he’ll be one of the younger competitors for his weight class, which makes these lifts even more impressive. And if the above videos weren’t enough, check out Maurus’ behind the neck jerk & jerk at 200kg from Friday.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Maurus places at Worlds. Colombia’s Jeison Lopez is typically one of Maurus’ main competitors, but he won’t be in attendance. Could Maurus find himself on the podium and earn USA some long overdo medals?
Time will tell. If you plan on attending Worlds, keep your eyes out for BarBend and come say hello, as we’ll be commentating a few of the days!
Feature image screenshot from @harrison_maurus Instagram page.
