Powerlifter Sam Watt Sets 3 Records at IPF European Championships

Powerlifter Sam Watt of Great Britain opened the record books and autographed his name three times at the 2019 International Powerlifting Federation European Classic Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania. Competing in the -105kg weight class, Watt claimed the bronze and set three new world records for the Masters 1 class.

For those who have not yet seen Sam Watt’s bronze winning performance, he shared a video of all three lifts on his Instagram page. Check it out here:

Watt’s stats from the IPF European Championships:

• Squat: 327.5kg (722lbs) – Masters 1 World Record
• Bench: 185kg (408lbs)
• Deadlift: 347.5kg (766lbs) – Masters 1 World Record
• Total: 860kg (1896lbs) – Masters 1 World Record

So he has three new records, but he actually broke a record four times: his second and third deadlifts each broke the Masters world record.

The detail that makes Watt’s European Championship bronze winning performance all the more impressive: he is about to turn 50 years old. His professional powerlifting debut was at age 20 at the European Powerlifting Federation European Juniors Powerlifting Championships in 1991! For context, the top five competitors aside from Watt in the -105kg weight class at this event were all born at least two decades after him.

Despite his age, Watt’s strength gains in the last month alone have been stellar. His personal best squat prior to the European Championships was 320kg (705lbs) , and he made that squat just eleven days before this competition. So his PR jumped up 7.5 kilos (16.5lbs) in under two weeks.

(the video says 704lbs. We double checked the math 320kg is 705.5lbs)

Watt has won quite a bit of hardware over his near thirty-year career. He won gold at the British Weightlifters Association British Men’s Powerlifting Championships six times between the -99kg and 109kg weight classes. He placed first at the World Powerlifting Congress Amateur World Championships twice. And he has won the British Power Union BodyPower British Championships three times.

Watt secured all these accolades despite taking a fourteen-year hiatus from competitive powerlifting between the ages of 32 and 46.

We do not currently know when he plans to compete next, but one thing seems to be certain for him: age is just a number.

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Feature image from Sam Watt’s Instagram page: @samwattfitness