Harrison Maurus is continuing his meteoric rise as one of the United States’ most promising young weightlifters. The 17-year-old, -77kg athlete is well-known in the weightlifting community for his fantastic clean & jerk — he currently holds junior world record in the lift with 192kg (422lb), which he set at the 2017 Youth World Championship in April.
It might be fair to say that his clean & jerk is generally considered his best lift. At Youth Worlds, his 140kg snatch was the second heaviest snatch, and four other -77kg athletes beat his 142kg snatch at this year’s Pan American Weightlifting Championships (which, to be fair, was a Senior competition).
But Maurus has clearly been working hard on the lift. Take a look at this snatch of 150 kilograms (330.7 pounds) that he recently made in training. This is a new PR for the athlete.
The caption simply reads, “150kg!!! Did this after waves of triples and doubles first! (…) #finally”
On Reddit, Maurus’ coach Kevin Simons gave a little more detail on the training session:
This was after 115/3, 125/2, 120/3, 130/2, 125/3, 135/2, 140/2, 145x (…)
the weights were pre planned for the most part. He had to make it perfect to go up each wave. He practically powered 140 on his first rep. There was no reason to miss 145. (…)
I hardly ever let an athlete go up after a miss, but I knew he was capable of it so let him go for it.
He also said that he is expecting the young weightlifter to pull off a double bodyweight snatch at this year’s World Weightlifting Championships, which will be held in Anaheim, California between November 28 and December 6.
More precisely, he said that he’s expecting a 154kg (339.5lb) snatch and a 198kg (436.5lb) clean & jerk, which would award Maurus a new youth world record total (352kg/776lb) and clean & jerk.
Keep in mind that this past April, Maurus PRd his total with 332kg (732lb): a 140kg snatch and 192kg clean & jerk. This would be adding 20 kilograms to his total in about 7 months.
That’s a big jump, but hey, we’ve learned not to underestimate Harrison Maurus.
Featured image via @harrison_maurus on Instagram.
