Juggernaut Training Systems is continuing to pump out more and more boundary-pushing athletes, a reputation that Colin Burns is helping by unofficially breaking the American snatch record this weekend, which he set himself this past December at the USAW Open. Check out his mighty 175kg (385.5lb) snatch, which he followed with a 200kg (4409lb) clean & jerk for a training total PR of 375 kg (826.7lb).
Burns made headlines at the USAW Open in December for setting a new American record of 173kg (381.4lb). This training lift is an incredible achievement because it only took him a little over two months to break his own record.
This snatch is even higher than the current record for the 105kg class, which Wes Kitts set two months ago with a 174kg (383.6lb) lift at the American Open Championships in Orlando. You can watch Kitts’ 174kg snatch below.
Another reason Burns is truly breaking the mold in the sport of Olympic weightlifting is that he is 33 years old, which makes him one of the oldest lifters to hold a record in American weightlifting.
A former resident at the USAW Olympic Training Center, Burns is coached under Max Aita and Chad Wesley Smith of Juggernaut Training Systems. (Click here to read about Aita and Smith’s recent breakdown of the top ten strength feats of all time.)
He has actually held the American record in the snatch at 94kg more than once. He set the record with a 169kg (372.6lb) snatch at the 2014 World Weightlifting Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, which you can see in some beautiful slow-motion below.
Four months earlier, he also held the American record for about two minutes in July 2014 when he snatched 167kg (368.2lb), until Norik Vardanian snatched it back with a 168kg lift.
Burns’s next goal is to increase his speed, which he appears to think is lacking. We have a feeling we’ll be seeing him break more records before 2017 is over.
Did you know the 2017 World Weightlifting Championships is coming to America this November? BarBend partner USA Weightlifting is hosting the world’s top weightlifters for 2017’s premiere international weightlifting competition. Help support the sport and reserve your spot by booking tickets today through USAW, and learn more about our partnership here.
Featured image via @burnscolin on Instagram.