The VBAR has been raised
by Al Myers
Timo Lauttamus of Finland performing a new ALL TIME overall IAWA record in the Vbar lift at the 2013 IAWA World Championships with a lift of 122.5 KG.
One of the exciting BIG LIFTS of the 2013 IAWA World Championships included a new ALL TIME IAWA RECORD in the one arm 2″ vertical bar. Timo Lauttamus of Finland performed a new record lift of 122.5 KG with ease. I was glad to be able to witness this lift first hand, and see the perfection in which it was performed. This was a fourth attempt for record as he had just previously got 117.5 KG on his third. For those of you that get kilogram confused – this comes out to 270 pounds!
Timo is one of the best grip guys I’ve been around. Pretty much any type of grip-lift he excels in. The day after the meet I went over to Mark Haydock’s (the meet promoter) gym and he told me that Timo had visited his gym prior to the meet and easily picked up Mark’s Inch Dumbbell replica. That didn’t surprise me!!!
The IAWA rules for the vertical bar are slightly different than the USAWA rules. I won’t get into that here as I’ve hashed it over in prior blog stories – but I consider the USAWA rules to be more difficult. The reason I say this is that the USAWA rules require the VBAR to be raised to the point where the hand is mid-thigh and the length of the VBAR is limited to 18″ maximum. IAWA rules allow up to a 30″ Vbar to be used and it only needs to be clear of the floor motionless till the down command to be given. Well – in this comp the Vbar was less than 18″ and Timo lifted it plenty high to pass USAWA rules. He left NO DOUBT that he is now king of the vertical bar.