Can you remember how your first powerlifting meet went? Very few athletes can say they’ve taken down a world record at their debut performance, but Johnnie Harris can. In his first meet, Harris unofficially took down an IPL Raw Bench Only World Record in the 125kg/275 lb weight class.
Over the weekend, Harris competed at the 5th Maryland State Championships hosted by the USPA in Frederick, Maryland. He came into the competition with one goal in mind — surpass the current IPL bench only world record.
The current IPL raw world record sat at 295kg/650 lbs and is held by Chad Kalilimoku. This record is a number and feat that Harris has been working towards for quite some time. In fact, we’ve written about Harris and his impressive benching on multiple occasions like that time he pressed 625 lbs for a paused double or that time he hit 585 lbs on the incline bench.
At the State Championships, he opened with a 272kg/600 lbs and made it look like a warm-up, then bumped up to 295kg/655 lbs for his second to unoffically top the world record. After surpassing the current world record and walking away like the lift was nothing, Harris made a lofty jump to 317kg/700 lbs, but unfortunately fell short.
Had Harris made his third attempt, he would have unofficially topped the IPL world record by an insane 50 lbs in his first powerlifting meet ever, and taken home the current 275 lb all-time bench only world record held by Jeremy Hoornstra.
In his video above, Julius Maddox, who holds the current all-time raw bench press world record with his remarkable 739.6 lb press completed at the Boss of Bosses 6 meet, dropped a comment saying, “Congratulations brother.”
Needless to say, you know you’ve had a great performance when Maddox is commenting on your bench performance.
With his first meet in the books, we’re pumped to see what else Harris is able to accomplish has he continues to work towards bench press world records.
Feature image from @power_bbuilder Instagram page.