On March 13, 2004 the first annual Punch Open Kettlebell Competition
was held in Providence, Rhode Island. Members of the local media,
including radio personality Steve Cass, were present to cover
the event which was the largest girevoy sport meet ever conducted
in the United States.
| PUNCH owner Anthony Diluglio started
planning this meet in November of 2003 after competing in
the second Harvard Classic. " I had never done a jerk
before that meet, after competing I fell in love with the
sport of kettlebell lifting", said Anthony who also encourages
his many clients to participate in girevoy sport. Diluglio
went on to say " most people join a gym or health club
because they are concerned about their weight or appearance,
I try to shift their focus towards athletic performance and
let the rest take care of itself." The results speak
for themselves, Anthony and everyone he trained did very well
in the meet. |
|
| Rob Lawrence, president of the
newly formed North American Kettlebell Federation, Brett Jones
SRKC, Terry McCarthy of the Philadelphia Kettlebell Club acted
as referees. When asked to comment on the meet Lawrence stated,
" I am amazed at the technical improvements made in the
ten months since the Virginia meet, there were a lot of strong
performances today." |
|
There were five adult divisions and one kids division contested;
the kid's division was won by Joshua Friedes with a score of 30,
women's 12kg division by Harriet Granoff with a score of 88(Level
I), women's 16kg division by Mary Anne McCarthy with a score of
80(Level II), men's 24kg 75kg+under by Angelo Mondragon with a
score of 75(Level II), men's 24kg 75-90kg by Matt Smith with a
score of 75(Level III), mens 24 kg 90+kg by Jason Brown with a
score of 76(Level III). Anthony Diluglio won the men's 32kg division.
In addition to being the largest girevoy sport meet held in America
the Punch Open was also the most competitive, each divisional
winner and many of the runners up achieved ranked performances.
Winners of each division took home a 16kg Dragondoor kettlebell
with a custom artistic paint job courtesy of Anthony and the runners
up were awarded a copy of Mike Mahler's latest DVD. Meet director
Jeff Waters hosted an excellent meet, and the impressive performances
plus the high level of attendance have definitely raised the bar
for American girevoy sport.
Steve Knapstein, RKC
For complete results or information on the girevoy sport nationals,
follow the links below:
http://www.punchgym.com/events/indehtml
http://www.philadelphiakettlebellclub.net/nationals/
