In the sport of powerlifting, it’s become increasingly more rare to see athletes break records that have stood for more than two decades. This is mostly because with the growth of powerlifting over the last ten years, most of these long-standing records have already been shattered and pushed further.
For example, if you look at any big powerlifting organization’s records page, or at the all-time world records lists, then you’ll notice that records from the early 2000s are rare, the 1990s are far and in-between, and the 1980s are nearly unheard of. That’s why the bench press record below featuring Andrey SapozHonkov breaking a 32 year old records is such a huge deal.
Russian powerlifting athlete Sapozhonkov is a regular competitor in the 90kg (198 lb) weight class, and he’s built a name for himself surrounding his insane bench press strength. Over the weekend, Sapozhonkov was among the many athletes who competed at the WRPF Europe Championships, which were hosted in Moscow, Russia on April 27-30th.
Weighing in on competition day at a light 88kg (193 lbs), Sapozhonkov called for 260kg (572 lbs) on the bar. This feat would break the long-standing 1986 all-time world record of 256kg (565 lbs) set by Larry Danaher. Check out Sapzhonkov’s record shattering lift below.
In the WRPF’s video’s description they write (which is loosely translated through the Instagram app),
“The historic moment at the European Championships WRPF 2018! In the category of up to 90 kilograms 32 years, no one could beat the all-time record, he stood already since 1986. Andrey Sapozhonkov (@sap_andruha) who by the age of a year younger than the record itself has just shaken 260 kilograms without equipment and became a new all-timer in the category to 90. All hurray!”
What’s possibly most impressive about the lift was how easy Sapozhonkov made it look and how clean his form was. A bench press doesn’t get much more clean than that, especially when breaking a 30 year old all-time world record.
Feature image from @wrp_federation Instagram page.
