My alarm sounded at 7:30. I arose and checked my body weight on Ellyn's scale. It was 84.77kg which is under the limit. I was quite relieved. After a shower I checked again and the scale read 85.25kg. This was a troubling development and I was concerned that if the scale was not consistent I really did inot know my true weight. I had a cup of coffee and walked t the venue. The check scale at the venue read 84.70kg. Before the competition I confirmed that the check scale and official scale had a difference of only 0.01kg, so I was again releived. At 10:00 I weighted on the oficial scale and my final body weight was 84.40kg (185.5 lbs). I made it with over a pound to spare. I then drank lots of water, gatorade, and ate a banana and a couple of granola bars. I began general stretching and warming up at 11:30 since my session started at noon. At weighin each athlete declares the weight for their first snatch and first clean and jerk. I declared 70k and 95kg which yields 165kg. This is the miniumum for my age group & weight class. At the Pan American Masters in July my lifts were 80kg and 110kg respectively, so I felt these opening attempts to be quite safe. My goal was to total at least 180kg which would qualify me for next year's world competition. My intention was to raise my starting weights to 75kg and 100kg if the warmups went well. Each athlete is allowed 2 weight changes per attempt. Rick Odor, with whom I had traveled at a number of previous competitions was also lifting in my group. Corinne, Ellyn, and Mary were coaching the two of us and Chris was helping to load the bar with our warmup weights. Though Rick and I are good friends, out methods of warming up is quite different. I take very few warmup lifts, only enough to be ready for the opening attempt on the platform. Rick needs lots and lots of warmup lifts. If I followed his routine I would be worn out before even getting to the platform. It works for Rick though. The warmups went well for me. Ellyn and Corinne changed my opening attempt to 75kg and I easily made 70kg for my final warmup.

Presentation of athletes and officials	Rick Odor and Les

I was successful on my opening attempt of 75kg, but I did not catch the bar just right and I could feel it in my shoulder. It was a subtle thing that no one could see, but I could feel. Regardless I asked for 80kg on my next attempt. Rick opened with 77kg and missed. He felt rushed, because he did not get as many warmup attempts as he wanted. Unfortunately, he missed 77kg on his 2nd and 3rd attempts. This means that he 'bombed' and would not be allowed to do the clean and jerks. I felt bad for him, but still had 2 attempts of mine to worry about. There was a long wait between my 1st attempt at 75 and my 2nd at 80kg. I had cooled off a bit, but 80kg is still not very heavy. I pulled the bar from the floor to overhead fairly easily, but left it a bit out front and could not hold it. I repeated with 80kg for my 3rd attempt, and came closer but still lift it out front and missed. That was not good, but at least I had one successful snatch and would go on to the clean and jerk.

Opening snatch - 75kg

Failed 2nd attempt - 80kg

Warmups for the clean and jerk went OK. Weight was light so I cleaned them easily, but I was not very crisp with the jerk. Ellyn and Corinne moved my attempt to 100kg. I took 95kg as a warmup and it was easy, but still did not feel good overhead. I told them to move me to 105kg. I needed 105kg to attain the 180kg goal for my total. My last warmup at 100kg was my best attempt. It felt good overhead. I was ready. I power cleaned (pulled the bar from the platform to my shoulders without having to squat to catch it) the 105kg very easily. I jerked it overhead but my foot positioning was not very good and I pressed the weight out. For a jerk to be considered 'good' it must be driven to from the shoulders to the overhead position with arms fully extended in a single quick motion. If it slows down and one must finish the arm extension with an obvious pressing movement or not extend the arms completely then it is a 'no lift'. Two of the three referees gave me red lights. I went out for my second attempt at 105kg thinking about the jerk. This is a big mistake because the clean must be done first. I missed the clean. For my third attempt I used my weightlifting belt. A belt is used to help support the back with very heavy weight. 105 does not qualify as 'very heavy' but I wanted any little advantage I could get. Once again I cleand the weight, though I had to catch it much lower than the 1st attempt. I stood up, set up for the jerk, and drove the bar overhead to arms length. However, I pushed it a bit out front. Prior to the shoulder injury I could have controlled the bar when it was a little out of position, but not these days.

Good 3rd attempt clean - 105kg
but missed the jerk - 105kg

After the session was complete I went back to the hotel to rest and prepare for the Congress meeting. I was not looking forward to it. Walter provides us a written agenda for the meeting. Congress began with a roll call of nations to determine who and how many can vote. Each nation gets one vote. The general course of the meeting is minutes, reports, presentations, and this year elections. I generally do not pay much attention to the reports because I've heard most of them before in the executive board meetings of the last few days. Corinne was sitting with the board at the head table to give the women's report for Barbara Conley who did not make the trip. Corinne was nervous and uncomfortable like I was 4 years earlier when acting as a standin for Ken McClain, the retiring records chairman. Corinne gave her report and then I gave my reports on world records (how many for each country, which individuals, etc.) and the website.

Then the presentations began for each country bidding for the 2011 world masters championships; Canada, Ukraine, and the USA. Canada had mailed a nice package to each national chairman and executive board member prior to this year's championships, so their chairman, John Margolis, maily talked to the main points and answered questions. The Ukraine group had a video and a speaker with a translator. They were a first time bidder and as expected had a few rough points needing a little polish. Next Michael Cohen of Savannah gave presented the bid for the USA. They went all out. Debbie Hudson and Corinne dressed as southern belles to hand out brochures, bags, hats, and banquet tickets to each national chairman. Michael had a good power point presentation, but spoke entirely too fast. Even I had trouble keeping up. Those whose native language is not english were lost within the first 30 seconds. Ballots were passed out, taken up, and sent out of the room to be counted. The count took longer than expected. Finally, the results were returned and Canada was the winner.

One of the last items on the agenda was election of officers. Nominations had been made a couple of months earlier by email and snail mail. Ballots were distributed to each nation. After marking the ballots the national chairman deposited them into a box at the front of the room. The positions of chairman and records chairman had but one nominee each; Bob Hemery from Australia and myself respectively. There were 5 people running for the 3 vice chairman positions, 2 for general secretary, Glenn Harris and an Australian were running for treasurer, and Corinne and Caroline Charles of Great Britain were running for women's chair. After the ballots were deposited, the 3 ballot counters took the box out of the room to begin the count. It soon became clear that the elections should have been placed earlier on the agenda, because it was taking a long time to count them. To stall for time Walter introduced the sitting board again and gave a short bio of each. After about 30 minutes the results still had not come back so Walter adjourned the Congress.