After a brief hiatus, the Arnold Sports Festival UK is back in 2024 and will feature powerlifting on all three days of the event in Birmingham, UK, from Mar. 15-17, 2024.
The contest is International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) sanctioned, so world records can be broken, and cash prizes are available in every discipline.
Athletes To Watch
Many world champions and world record holders are lifting across the weekend. Here are a few to watch:
Day 1 — Classic Powerlifting
Poland’s Agata Sitko won the 2024 Sheffield Powerlifting Championships in grand style in February, winning £40,000 and achieving the highest GL-point score ever seen in the IPF.
(The IPF adopted the GL point system in 2020 as a replacement for the Wilks score. GL points are a multi-factor calculation that allows for comparison between athletes of different weight and sex, or those who compete in different divisions.)
Sitko was the first Polish woman to bring back a gold medal from The World Games and won the 2021 IPF Equipped Open World Championships at 18 years old. She is the favorite in this class.
Kjell Bakkelund of Norway is a five-time world champion in the IPF, having won in classic and equipped competitions. At the 2023 European Powerlifting Federation (EPF) European Classic in Tartu, Estonia, Bakkelund broke the 74-kilogram class deadlift world record with 330 kilograms.
That record has since been pushed up to 331 kilograms by Tim Monigatti at Sheffield. The 800-kilogram total world record Bakkelund set the same day still stands.
Day 2 — Equipped Powerlifting
Denmark’s Nicki Lentz is the IPF world record holder in the 93-kilogram class with a colossal 405-kilogram squat performed in front of a rapturous home crowd at the 2022 IPF World Equipped Championships in Viborg, Denmark.
Lentz has since moved to the 105-kilogram class and is still in the process of filling it out. He’s added more than 10 kilograms to his squat since then, so seeing what he brings to this contest will be exciting.
Sonja Stefanie Krüger of Germany dominated the European equipped circuit for years as a Junior. She recently moved to the Open class and already has two Open world titles to her name.
Krüger is the IPF world record holder in squat and bench press in the 69-kilogram and 76-kilogram classes and will be hard to beat.
Day 3 — Equipped Bench Press
Canada’s Garrett Bentley heads up the roster in equipped bench. He is one of Team Canada’s head coaches and has recently returned to international competition.
Bentley won bronze in the +120-kilogram class at the 2023 IPF World Bench Press Championships in Sun City, South Africa, in a close battle in which the entire podium was separated by only five kilograms.
Hildeborg Hugdal is the strongest female bencher in the IPF. She hit 235.5 kilograms in single-ply equipment at the 2023 EPF European Bench Press Championships in Merignac, France, surpassing the long-standing world record set by Sandra Lönn in 2015.
Prize Purse
The prize money is equal across the men’s and women’s competitions.
Classic Powerlifting
- First place — €3,000
- Second place — €1,500
- Third place — €1,000
Equipped Powerlifting
- First place — €3,000
- Second place — €1,500
- Third place — €1,000
Equipped Bench Press
- First place — €2,000
- Second place — €1,000
- Third place — €500
Full Livestream Schedule
Note: All times UTC. The schedule is subject to change. All sessions will be available to watch for free on the British Powerlifting YouTube channel.
Friday, March 15
- Classic Powerlifting Men — 10:00 a.m.
- Classic Powerlifting Women — 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 16
- Equipped Powerlifting Women — 10:00 a.m.
- Equipped Powerlifting Men — 1:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 17
- Equipped Bench Press Women — 10:00 a.m.
- Equipped Bench Press Men— 12:30 p.m.
This promises to be an exciting and entertaining contest. Watch live every day on the British Powerlifting YouTube channel.
Featured Image: @theipf on Instagram
