Swedish athlete Alexander Eriksson has exploded onto the global powerlifting scene with an unofficial IPF junior world record deadlift of 281 kilograms, or 619.5 pounds. Eriksson competed raw in the -74kg weight class.
Check out the lift below.
Along with the video, Eriksson posted a caption in Swedish that read in part:
281kg for unofficial junior world record, Swedish and Nordic total record of 678.5kg in -74kg. really fun competition today with a lot of really strong lifts from both senior but above all junior level.
The current junior world record is 280.5kg.
Meanwhile, for those wondering, the IPF junior world record deadlift in the -66kg class is actually higher than the record in Eriksson’s -74kg class: 285 kilograms (628.3 pounds), which Clifton Pho set last month.
Eriksson was born in 1994, spent his teen years as wrestler, and in between powerlifting meets he studies Industrial Engineering at Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology.
According to his Facebook, his goal is to work with his coach Patrik Andersson to become a world champion in powerlifting — and he’s been working hard.
As a -66kg sub-junior athlete, he took third place at the 2012 IPF World Championships with a total of 587.5 kilograms (1,295 pounds), the same number as second place finisher Vladimir Semenov. He won another bronze medal at the IPF World Championships in 2014 as a -74kg Junior, totaling 737.5 kilograms (1626 pounds).
The same year, he won his first gold medal at the European Powerlifting Federation’s championships in St. Petersburg, Russia. He totaled 752.5 kilograms (1,659lb), which included a 287.5-kilogram (633.8-pound) deadlift.
He has since gone on to win gold in the -74kg junior class at the 2015 and 2016 European Powerlifting Federation championships, totaling 747.5kg and 765kg respectively. (It appears he didn’t compete in this year’s championships in March.)
The junior world deadlift record isn’t exactly under his belt, but Eriksson has shown that he has what it takes to take his lifting career global.
Featured image via @ae.power on Instagram.