Last time we highlighted Blaine Sumner, he had just suffered an unfortunate squat mishap in training, which put the rest of his powerlifting season in doubt. Just two months later, Sumner was back on the platform at the 2018 IPF World Open Equipped Powerlifting Championships in Sweden, where he set a new World Record in +120kg bodyweight category for the bench press (and almost came away with two records in the lift).
Check out Sumner’s impressive 415kg/915 pound bench press below! Oh, and for those wondering, this was actually the powerlifter’s opening attempt.
Even more astounding? Sumner’s next bench press attempt at 425kg was initially passed and then overturned by the jury.
Sumner — a multi-time World Record holder and the 2016 World Champion — finished second overall in the competition behind perennial rival Andrey Konovalov of Russia. But perhaps even more remarkable than Sumner’s lifting performance is how he came back from injury to even be at the competition, a story he shared on Instagram (text embedded below):
8 weeks ago I sliced my arm open missing the rack on a 1,025 lb squat. I was less than a centimeter away from ending my lifting career. And a few feet away from ending my wife’s life. Right when my equipped training was supposed to start for Worlds, this happened. The first few hours in the ER and the next few weeks I thought I was done because mentally getting under the bar again scared the daylights out of me. When I first tried lifting again I would get dizzy and light headed trying to load the bar because of the psychological trauma and I couldn’t get over the scarring memory of seeing my bodily tissue hanging out of my arm. My wife got my head screwed on straight and pushed me to overcome this fear. I cannot begin to describe what she has done for me to get ready for this meet. I’ll save that for another post. With only a couple weeks left before Worlds, I got under the bar again and had even more near catastrophes – again for a later post. I kept facing these incidents and kept coming back. I finished a heartbreaking 2nd today at the IPF Open World Championships. Only my opening squat of 1,025 lbs was passed after 1,047 lbs got turned down twice on depth. I broke my own Bench Press World Record with 915 lbs on my opening attempt and pressed 937 lbs but was overturned by the jury. I deadlifted 761 lbs for a total of 2,701 lbs, 5 lbs. behind first place. Well deserved win to Konovalov from Russia and an exceptional performance from an incredible lifter. I’ve had some heartbreaking meets in my career – but for some reason this is easier to swallow because of how different my life could have changed a few weeks ago. I don’t know what comes next in my lifting career, but thank you all for the support – I love you all!
Now that he’s back to competing, we’re excited to see what Blaine Sumner does next!
Featured image: International Powerlifting Federation IPF on YouTube
