Skip to content

Iron Chisel ready to compete again at CFI Fitness in Port McNeill

“This whole thing is a pre-lim, we’re getting ready for a competition in Victoria on May 4”
15891747_web1_190313-NIG-Specialolympics_1
TYSON WHITNEY PHOTO Iron Chisel competed last year against Team Dog from Campbell River, this year they will be facing off against Courtenay.

Mount Waddington’s Special Olympics Powerlifting team, Iron Chisel, will be clanging and banging weights at CFI Fitness on March 16, not March 30 as previously announced.

The date change “fitted team Courtenay’s schedule,” noted Iron Chisel coach Rob Engel, who added he has four powerlifters on the squad who will be going into battle against Courtenay next weekend; John Bee, Anthony Schofield, Dominic Parsons and Thomas Tenney.

“This whole thing is a pre-lim, we’re getting ready for a competition in Victoria on May 4,” said Engel, “And we want to get the boys warmed up.”

He added the event on March 16 is going to feature “some pretty big lifts by some not very big guys,” pointing out Bee is currently deadlifting 320 lbs and benching 190 lbs at a weight of 159-160 lbs.

Engel said he knows Bee could definitely go on to compete at The Worlds, but everyone else on the team “has been exceeding their personal bests by 20 per cent, and that’s in the last six months, and I’m pretty sure we will get another 10 per cent improvement at the competition.”

Powerlifting has been a huge benefit to the four youth. “Their advancements at blending in with society and communicating — they’re really growing as people,” said Engel with a smile.

Iron Chisel practices twice a week for an hour to an hour-and-a-half at CFI Fitness, and the competition on March 16 will run from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.



Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
Read more