With the World Championships fast approaching we are releasing four articles covering what to expect in Belarus between the 14th – 25th June. This article will cover which top athletes to look out for in each of the Men’s Open weightclasses (59kg – 120kg+), with the other three articles covering the Women’s Open (47kg – 84kg+), the Junior Men’s, and the Junior Women’s.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the Men’s Open 59kg class. Here are the nominations.

59kg – Wednesday 21st June

Leading the nominations is undisputed King of the 59kg class, reigning World Champion Sergey Fedosienko (RUS). This man took all four 59kg World Records last year with a 227.kg Squat, 171kg Bench Press, 271kg Deadlift, and 669.5kg Total. He also took the best lifter spot with a 584.74 Wilks, 21~ points ahead of 2nd place Dennis Cornelius and 25~ ahead of Ray Williams. As seen on our recent post, his training is going very well leading in the competition.

Undoubtedly, Fedosienko will be taking 1st place in the 59kg class, with the aim of extending his World Records, and potentially attempting to retake his Squat World Record after newcomer Kevin Gray (AUS) burst on the scene and claimed it with a massive 240kg earlier this year at the Pacific Invitational in April.

Meanwhile Franklin Leon (ECU) and Dariusz Wszola (POL) will be battling it out for 2nd place with Mohamed Lakehal (ALG) not far behind.

66kg – Thursday 22nd June

This class will be a heated battle. Reigning Champion Sergey Gladkikh (RUS) leads the nominations by 10kg, with Stephen Cascioli (CAN) right behind him. Meanwhile Alexander Kolbin (RUS) who placed 2nd in the 59kg class in 2015 returns to the World Stage now as a 66kg lifter.

Earlier this year we saw three straight Squat World Record attempts in the 66kg class at the Arnold Classic in Columbus. Stephen Cascioli held the record with 245.5kg, which Keith McHoney (USA) attempted to take with 247.5kg on his 2nd and 3rd attempt, unfortunately missing both. Straight after his 3rd attempt, Cascioli extended his record with 248kg, only to be chipped by Junior lifter Sawyer Yandell (USA) with 248.5kg right after.

Despite placing 2nd in the 66kg class last year, Keith McHoney will not be on Team USA for World’s this year, most likely because of USA’s decision to take two 93kg and 105kg lifters, capping off their eight athletes they can take to World’s. Keith’s presence would have only upped the ante for this already close battle. Meanwhile USA’s Sawyer Yandell will be representing the country as a Junior lifter. Nonetheless, this weightclass will certainly be one to watch.

74kg – Friday 23rd June

Strangely, reigning World Champion Aliaksa Hrynkevich-Sudnik (BEL) is not on the nominations list for the World Championships despite the event is taking place in his home country. We currently do not know why this is.

Meanwhile, Kjell Egil Bakkelund (NOR) is ranked 1st. This lifter is a well established equipped lifter in the 83kg class but hasn’t been on the international scene since 2014. Almost out of the blue he has dropped down to the 74s and is competing Raw. Though his nomination shows a 730kg total, this Instagram post shows him totalling a massive unofficial World Record 762.5kg (252.5/192.5/317.5):

Ranked 2nd is Yoshihiro Higa (JAP), with his his first time at the World Championships. The Japanese lifter is relatively unknown, but that will all change after the World Championships. At the Japanese Raw Nationals this year he posted a 74kg unofficial World Record Squat with 270kg – 9.5kg over Rabah El Fekair‘s current World Record. Yoshihiro missed 270kg on his 2nd attempt for what looked like downward movement, but managed to get it up again on his third. He then went on to bench 152.5kg and pull 302.5kg, totalling 725kg. Yoshihiro will definitely be looking to claim the official Squat World Record and take gold.

Ranked 3rd with a matching 725kg Total from Raw Nationals 2016 is Taylor Atwood (USA). At World’s last year Taylor just missed out on the gold medal after getting red lights on his third Deadlift for not locking out properly. Taylor discussed how he was dealing with injuries leading up to World’s last year on the King of the Lifts podcast, and only managed a few good weeks of training prior to it. With his training going well, he is looking on track to put up some huge numbers and potentially take gold.

479×3. Fatigue is realllll. Resting up for a big week next week. The peak is hereeee #TheStrengthGuys #DeNovoNutrition #SBDApparel A post shared by Taylor Atwood (@t_atwood) on Jun 2, 2017 at 2:50pm PDT

Ranked 4th is Yakov Ionion (KAZ). Absent from social media, little known is known about this lifter; he wasn’t at the World’s last year, but placed 4th in the 74kg class with a 680kg total in 2015. Adding on 40kg since then (nominated with 720kg), he is certainly also in with a chance of winning.

Since placing 3rd next to John Haack and Brett Gibbs in the hyped 83kg class at last year, Owen Hubbard (GBR) has dropped down to the 74kg class for this World Championships. When he first made the drop, he posted a 700kg total (242.5/190/267.5) back in February this year:

Since then, he’s posted fast singles at 237.5kg on the Squat, and a heavy looking 196kg single on the Bench. Who knows where ‘Mr. Intensity’ will be at. He’s certainly not one to underestimate for this weightclass. No longer having to drop weight may have yielded dividends on his total, we’ll have to watch and see.

83kg – Friday 23rd June

With his rivals John Haack and Owen Hubbard absent from the class, Brett Gibbs (NZL) is left to completely dominate the 83’s this year, where he is over 40kg ahead of the 2nd place nomination. The nominations don’t even take into account his recent performance at the Pacific Invitational where he totalled 814kg:

Brett will potentially have opportunities to take all four Open World Records with his amazing recent training numbers, including a 302.5kg Squat, 217.5kg Bench Press, and 317.5kg Deadlift, all of which moved fast.

Ranked 3rd, Deamo Baguga (NRU) currently holds the 83kg Open Deadlift World Record with 322.5kg which he hit just after Gibbs set it at 321.5kg at the Pacific Invitational. Though he may not have much of a chance to win, Deamo will certainly be looking to extend his Deadlift record and keep Gibbs at bay.

93kg – Saturday 24th June

The 93kg class is also a packed one, with the top four nominations not far from each other.

Last year’s 93kg Junior World Champion Anatolii Novopismennyi (UKR), who is still a Junior, has decided to enter the Open category this year and for good reason: he’s ranked first. He has totalled 843kg at what can be assumed to be a Ukranian divisional or National competition. This is only 4.5kg off Krzysztof Wierzbicki’s 93kg World Record Total, and is 40.5kg more than his own winning Total for the 93kg Junior class last year:

After winning the Junior 93kg title in 2015 yet being absent last year, Yerlan Smagulov (KAZ) is ranked 2nd this year. Having added 55kg to his winning total in 2015, and being only 3kg behind Anatolii, Yerlan will be gunning to beat the Junior lifter and take the gold medal.

Fifty-eight year-old “Superman” David Ricks (USA) is ranked 3rd with his 830kg Total from the USAPL Raw Nationals 2016. This superstar M2 lifter continues to astonish us with his immense abilities to compete among the elite at his age. Process this for a second: David Ricks is 47 years older than the number 1 ranked 93kg lifter.

Behind Ricks, ranked 4th, is fellow Team USA lifter Ls McClain.

105kg – Saturday 24th June

This is the most stacked weightclass. So much so that we have an entire article on it.

Read it here.

To summarize, Krzysztof Wierzbicki (POL), Garrett Blevins (USA), Stephen Manuel (GBR) and Bryce Lewis (USA) have all set 105kg World Record Totals in the past year, and will all be going head to head.

Just make sure you watch this epic battle on Saturday 24th June.

120kg – Sunday 25th June

The 120kg class is looking like its going to pan out very similarly to last year.

Last year’s no. 2 overall lifter by Wilks score, Dennis Cornelius (USA) is looking to take gold and potentially some World Records. He’ll be looking to take back the World Record Squat from Anthony Harris, fellow USA lifter, who set the record at the Arnold Classic in Columbus earlier this year. He’ll also be looking to extend his Bench Press (253kg) and Total (978.5kg) World Records. Here’s a 320kg x5 Squat set he posted:

705 x 5 raw squat. First time to squat anything heavy in a few weeks. Time to build up for worlds. #ipfworlds #ipfclassicworlds2017 #sbdapparel #sspt A post shared by Dennis Cornelius (@denniscornelius500) on May 21, 2017 at 1:29pm PDT

Ranked 2nd is M1 lifter Mohamed Bouafia (ALG). After unfortunately bombing out on Squats in November 2016 at the Arnold Classic Europe (missing 340kg, 360kg, and 370kg for depth), Mohamed will be looking to redeem himself and edge closer to Dennis.

Ranked 3rd is 2017’s European Classic Champion Tony Cliffe (GBR).

120kg+ – Sunday 25th June

Three-time and Reigning World Champion; World Record Squat (477.5kg), Deadlift (392.5kg) and Total (1105kg) holder, Ray Williams is here for business.

Everyone will be watching eagerly to see what he puts on the bar to extend his Squat World Record as he gets closer to the big 500kg milestone. He matched his own 477.5kg World Record in training recently, so who knows what he has planned.

Meanwhile ranked 2nd is Jezza Uepa (NRU), who is slowly catching up to Williams. He squatted 440kg at the Pacific Invitational recently, missing 457.5kg on his third attempt.

A mere 5kg behind Jezza in the rankings is Kelly Branton (CAN). After placing 3rd the last two years, Kelly will be looking to overtake Jezza and take 2nd place.

The super-heavyweights is always a scene to be watched and we can’t wait.

Which weightclass are you most excited to see unfold at the World Championships? Who do you think will win the close battles? Let’s find out in a couple of weeks!

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