Record Breaking Ex Cadet – 10263 Don Lovell Competing in Moose Jaw This Week
By: WJO
10263 Don Lovell will be competing as a member of the Canadian Team in the North American Powerlifting Championships to be held in Moose Jaw July 8th to 11th.
Powerlifting consists of three lifts Squat, Bench and Deadlift. Last week at the BC Provincial Championships Don set a new National Deadlift record of 182.5 KG (402 lbs) .
The military college graduate – RRMC ’72 – RMC ’74 B.A. (Hons), History actually got involved in the sport by accident.
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“I took up weight training in 2005 entirely because of my wife. Charmaine had been going to a fitness trainer with a friend. Owing to her friend’s change in work schedule Charmaine needed to have someone to share the cost and she decided I would be a good candidate. It did not save any money because the costs still came out of the same account but it sounded good. It turned out the trainer had been a powerlifter in the 1980’s and his stories about competing got us interested to give it a try.”
It would be fair to say from that time on he was ‘hooked’ to the sport.
“Charmaine and I went in our first Provincial competition in 2008 and have competed every year since then. Powerlifting consists of Squat, Bench and Deadlift with a total taken from the best successful lift after three attempts at each lift. Competitors compete in their age and weight category. I compete in the 66 KG and sometimes 74 KG body weight. There are two divisions of Powerlifting; Classic (or Raw) and Equipped Powerlifting. Equipped lifting permits certain supportive apparel such as knee wraps and bench shirts which can assist the lifter.
The retired Architect with the Development Services BC Government has made quite a name for himself.
In 2012 in Calgary Don qualified to compete at the National Championships and established National Records in Classic Powerlifting Squat, Bench and Deadlift for Masters III (60 -69). In 2013 in Vancouver he set National records in the three lifts for the Equipped Powerlifting Masters III. In Montreal at the 2014 Nationals he maintained or improved his Classic and Equipped Powerlifting records.
All of these records were beaten in May 2015 by a Nova Scotia lifter. At the June BC Provincials Don set a new Deadlift record of 182.5 KG (402 lb) for Masters III and also Masters II. As well he has the National record for Classic (non-equipped) Deadlift Master’s III of 180.5 KG (398 lb).
Don has competed in 15 Provincial, 1 Western Canadian and 3 National competitions. He will be one of 66 lifters on the Canadian team next week in Moose Jaw.
He hopes to be selected for the Canadian Team to compete at the Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships which will be held at the Olympic Oval, Richmond, BC November 30th to December 6th.
“It would also be great to compete at the NAPF Championships in 2016 as they will be held in Cancun. A major goal would be to make the Canadian Team to compete in the World Master’s Championships which will be in Tallinn, Estonia in October 2016 or 2017 when the event is in Orlando.”
The proud Ex Cadet concluded: “We train 3 to 4 times a week at the Pacific Institute for Sports Excellence in Victoria. This excellent facility was built with legacy funds from the 1994 Commonwealth Games. Any Ex-cadets or their partners interested in the sport let me know.”