Gavin breaks world record

STRABANE strongman, Gavin McNamee broke the under-90kg deadlift world record in Galway on December 11th when he lifted 376kgs, which is just over four times his own bodyweight.

What makes the 26-year-old’s achievement all the more impressive is that he achieved that remarkable feat on the back of just eight months training having recovered from a knee injury that kept him out of the gym for around eight weeks at the start of the year.

Having recovered from that injury, Jason Lafferty of Peak Performance Gym in Ballycolman, where Gavin has trained for years, offered him sponsorship to help with his progress and that support has certainly paid off.

Before his trip to Galway, Gavin had no aspirations of breaking the world record, certainly not this year, but after an impressive performance in Derry he attacked the next competition with renewed confidence and motivation.

“To be honest I didn’t really have a plan of breaking the world record as never in a million years did I think I would be capable, especially this year as I had only started back training in April after two months out of training with a minor knee injury,” he explained.

“The initial goal was at most to try and break the U90kg Irish Deadlift Record of 365kg held by my good friend and the man that got me into strongman, Mark Burke, who also broke the U80kg Deadlift World Record last month.”

With a target in mind, Gavin knuckled down to training with his focus on Galway. He enjoyed sessions at MKFitness in Derry, which is owned by Matthew McKeegan, who broke the U105kg Deadlift World Record this year.

And with a healthy crew of strongmen on hand, motivation was never in short supply and with his deadlift improving week on week, the Irish record looked well within his grasp.

On the day of the event in Galway, Gavin had several other events to contend with, including the log press, which he ‘didn’t go too crazy’ during in order to save his energy for the deadlift.

However, while warming up for the deadlift, doubt started to creep into his mind as both his 280kg and 300kg lifts ‘felt a lot harder than they should have’.

“I had a lot of doubt in my mind as my next lift and first lift at the platform was 340kg!,” he explained.

“I managed to pull this weight relatively easy but not as easy as it felt in training the previous week, which had me doubting my next lift of 366kg.

“Matthew had told me go straight for 376kg as he thought the 340kg flew off the floor but I stuck to the original plan as I was starting to doubt myself so I pulled 366kg relatively easy and so I was left with the big one!

“The referee approached me and told me before my World Record attempt and said I am in no way giving this rep to you easy as I don’t want anyone on this planet being able to say that the rep wasn’t performed correctly or it wasn’t locked out properly or it wasn’t held long enough at the top so I said OK and approached the platform!

“As I got to the platform I never even thought about the weight on the bar or thought about the world record, etc. I just thought to myself lift it and lock it out properly and walk away. So I strapped myself to the bar, got the lift signal from the ref and started to lift.

“The bar slowly left the ground and gradually reached above my knee so I thought to myself oh my God it’s going up so kept pulling and pulling until I had locked out at the top and got the down command from the referee and the rest is history!”
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