Last night in Spokane, Washington, 17-year-old American weightlifter Harrison Maurus etched his name in the history books at the USA Weightlifting 2018 National Junior Championships.
On Maurus’ second attempt he called for 200kg on the bar, which would would not only earn him the 85kg Junior American clean & jerk record, but would also make him the youngest American weightlifter to ever complete this monstrous feat in competition.
In USA Weightlifting’s video below they write in the description, “@harrison_maurus sets a new JUNIOR AMERICAN RECORD with a 200kg Clean and Jerk in the 85kg weight category at #18NJC!! The record was previously set by Kendrick Farris at 198kg in 2006. He also sweeps gold.”
In addition to Maurus’ record breaking clean & jerk, he also put up impressive snatch numbers. His opening attempt of 145kg sealed gold on the day, then he went on to complete a second attempt at 151kg, but missed his third attempt at 156kg.
Check out Maurus’ 151kg snatch video below where USA Weightlifting writes, “Harrison Maurus secures GOLD with his opening snatch of 145kg in the 85kg weight category, but his second attempt of 151kg is his best, putting him 16kg ahead of 2nd place at #18NJC!”
To wrap up his impressive day, Maurus finished with a 351kg total, which was only 2kg shy from breaking Kendrick Farris’ 353kg Junior American record set in 2006.
For this competition, Maurus moved up a weight class from 77kg to 85kg. The weightlifting world wasn’t worried that he’d continue to be a stellar athlete, but there was some speculation about what kind of numbers he’d put up, as the World Championships were only about three months ago.
With this last performance Maurus proves once again just how good he is. He not only swept gold, but he sealed a Junior American Record in the process.
Feature image screenshot from @usa_weightlifting Instagram page.
