After a stellar 2017 that say him break a World Championships medal drought for American Men, Harrison Maurus came into 2018 with high hopes and even higher expectations from many weightlifting fans. And in the first three months of the year, he exceeded even those lofty expectations.
The Junior lifter — who recently moved up to 85kg from 77kg — set clean PR after clean PR in training. When he returned to competition at the 2018 USA Weightlifting National Junior Championships in Spokane, Washington, he made another statement by becoming the youngest American in history to clean & jerk 200kg. (He also attempted a new Senior American Record clean & jerk at 205 but wasn’t able to nail the second part of the lift.)
Now, it’s not even halfway through the training year, and Maurus is starting to (routinely) top his record-breaking competition performances in heavy training days.
Yesterday, the 18 year-old lifter from Washington State snatched 155kg and clean & jerked 200kg for a 4kg PR total of 355kg.
That total is just 7kg off of Kendrick Farris’ 362kg American Record, which was set at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. It’s also 2kg above Farris’ Junior American Record, set back in 2006.
With a couple years left of Junior eligibility, Maurus looks primed to overtake that record — potentially several times — and set a new standard for young American lifters in his weight class.
Of course, with an impending weight class restructuring from the IWF likely to come through before the Tokyo Olympics, it will be interesting to see what bodyweight category Maurus ultimately ends up in (though the same could be said for every other elite weightlifter we’re following!). He’s certainly one of the top American lifters on our radar heading into the qualification period for 2020.
Featured image: @harrison_maurus on Instagram
