Last weekend, Christine Lesellier, part of Ekinops’ Sales administration team, made the 12-hour flight to Japan to participate in the IPF World Bench Press championships.
Taking place on Saturday 18th May in Tokyo, the event combined equipped bench press and classic (or raw) bench press and was attended by an all-time high number of lifters: 1088 in total, with Christine joining the 200+ female classic lifters from across the world.
If you’ve met Christine, you’ll know she is a dedicated sportswoman. She first began training in 2009 and is just as passionate a decade on. In 2018, she set the classic bench press world record in her weight category of 50kg. Her secret is simple: work hard, train consistently and enjoy the moment.
Christine is a classic powerlifter, meaning she doesn’t wear a vest for support. She entered the group 2 category (50 – 59 years) weighing in at 50kg and up against three other lifters - two Japanese and a contender from Hungary.
On her first attempt at the bar, Christine benched an easy 80kg. A world record breaking attempt claimed only minutes later by her Japanese opponent who passed 81.5 kg.
