We don’t know about you, but with Meredith Alwine’s latest jerk PR, we’re foreshadowing an epic battle in the very near future between the top USA weightlifters that currently occupy the newly established -71kg weight class. In less than a month, over 1,600 athletes will be taking the platform at the American Open Series 3 competition that’s taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada from September 13-16th.
Previously a -69kg weightlifter, Alwine is set to compete in the -71kg weight class at the AO3 and has been putting on some epic displays of athleticism over the last two months. In mid-July, Alwine competed at the IWF Junior World Championships and swept silver for Team USA in the -75kg weight class, but more on that below.
The focal point of this article is on Alwine’s latest jerk progress, which has got us and many USA weightlifting fans excited. Yesterday, Alwine shared a video on her Instagram page highlighting a 145kg/319 lb jerk PR from the blocks, which tops her previously posted best jerk on Instagram from late June by 5kg.
At the young age of 20, Alwine has definitely been showing a ton of promise behind her lifting as of lately. We mentioned it above, but she swept silver at the IWF Junior World Championships in the -75kg weight class, and mind you, she’s not typically a -75kg competitor, so that performance within itself was very impressive.
For the IWF Junior World Championships, Alwine snatched a PR of 99kg, clean & jerked 121kg, and earned a total of 220kg. If the above jerk means one thing, it’s that Alwine is building the depth for the female USA weightlifting athletes who are going to be making their case for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Remember, the -71kg weight class won’t be contested at the Olympics, and the surrounding weight classes are -64kg and -76kg. Alwine has competed at -75kg before, so she has some experience competing in a similar weight class to -76kg — we’re pumped to see the progress she makes over the next two years and at the AO3.
Feature image from @meredithalwine Instagram page.