RP teener Llena carts 3 golds in world powerlifting tilt

Fifteen-year-old Patricia Llena of the Philippines showed that she’s one of the strongest in the planet, winning three gold medals and a bronze in the 2009 World Sub-Junior & Junior Powerlifting Championships in Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Competing in her first international tournament, Llena outclassed her five rivals in the women’s J18 60-kg. division, making golden lifts of 170kgs in the squat, another 170kgs in the deadlift and 420kgs in total lift.

The pride of San Antonio, Nueva Ecija fell short of sweeping the four gold medals at stake in her division as her 80kg lift in the bench press was only good for third place. However, she was able to set a new Asian subjunior bench press record with that lift. Kendra Miller of US and Yana Talybora of Russia came in second and third behind the Filipina youngster with identical total lifts of 405 kgs. Miller also won the gold in the bench press with 87.5 kgs and bagged the silver in the deadlift with 157.5 kgs. Aside from a bronze in the total lift, Talybora also got the silver in the deadlift (167.5 kgs) and squat (87.5 kgs) plus another bronze in the bench press (150 kgs). Llena, who started lifting weights at the tender age of four, was the lone Philippine bet in the tournament participated in by lifters aged 14 to 18 from 30 countries. This was only the second major tournament for Llena after the last National Powerlifting Championships, wherein she established three new Philippine records. - GMANews.TV