The GSU Competition year kicked off on the 6th of February with the 2016 Welsh Championships, hosted by the Boatshed Training Centre in Cardiff. The team behind the Boatshed have been running the Welsh Kettlebell Sport competition annually since 2010 (one of the first competitions within the UK at the time!) making this the 6th year it has ran and so the longest running competition within the UK. As always the Boatshed put on a great event and welcomed over 80 lifters, new and old,  through it’s doors!

Being the first competition in the year many lifters took the opportunity to compete either in a lighter weight than normal, different event, or even both with over 30 lifters opting to take part in both long cycle and biathlon! This made for a busy day with around 120 flight slots but thanks to Peter, Katie and their team everything ran like clockwork making for a slick and hopefully enjoyable day for all!

This event saw many new lifters, some from newly formed clubs, some independent and making the trip themselves to take part, great to see and hopefully everyone felt welcomed into what is a friendly and strong sporting community!

Some notable performance of the day included the setting of three new UK record by Will Dollar and Scott McLaughlin, and two new world records by Abigail Johnston! More details on these below.

Scott McLaughlin breaks 2 UK records at the GSU Welsh Open 2016. Congratulations to Scott on an outstanding performance.
BIATHLON 24kg SCORE:
150 reps JERK
194 reps SNATCHLONG CYCLE 2x20kg
98 reps CLEAN &  JERK
The Jerk, Biathlon and Long cycle personal bests and UK records for Scott and we’re sure he will have more plans up his sleeve for future GSU competitions.

Watch his Jerk set here: Scott Jerk Set

Another UK Long Cycle record has fallen.
Will Dollar of Team Brighton breaks the UK record for 24kg Long Cycle. Congratulations Will we know there’s more where that came from!
LONG CYCLE 2x24kg SCORE:
101 reps CLEAN & JERK

Watch his set here: Will Long Cycle

The GSU’s very own Abigail Johnston beat her own WORLD RECORDS for 24kg biathlon and long cycle:

BIATHLON SCORE:
180 reps JERK
165 reps SNATCH

LONG CYCLE:
132 reps CLEAN & JERK

Watch all her sets here:
JERK
SNATCH
LONG CYCLE

The Next GSU competition will be the GSU English Championships taking place in combination with the IKFF British Open Pentathlon as part of a great kettlebell sport weekend. Stay tuned to here: Kettlebell Sport Weekend, for more details for that!

Meanwhile the full results from the welsh Championship are below:

 Well done again to our GSU Four Nations Individual Champions:

Biathlon Champions

Sinead Byrne, Denise Holohan, Abi Johnston, Suzi Baylis, Josh Hayes, Mark Stapleton, Simon Trenholm, James Holladay, Scott gregory and Nick Johnson,

Long Cycle Champions

Cheryl Ballance, Anna Plumridge, Abi Johnston, Anna Moellar, Josh Hayes, Mark Stapleton, Luke Jones, Scott McLaughlin, Mark Stroud and Eddie Sheehan

And here’s a sneak peak at the Tournament champions’ prizes! We have a voucher kindly donated by our sponsors Wolverson Fitness, along with a locker kit bag and exclusive 4 Nations champions t-shirt.

I think it’s fair to say that the formation Committee of GSU Scott McLaughlin, Abigail Johnston, Eddie Sheehan, Mark Stapleton, Steve Dawson and Mark Stroud have done a fantastic job in getting GSU off the ground and growing it from seed into what it is today.

As well as the current work programme i.e. The Four Nations Tournament, the Annual Study Trip to Russia and ongoing seminars, there are a number of new exciting initiatives in the pipeline . In addition GSU will work with other kettlebell organisations in our member countries with united effort, to promote and develop the sport e.g. the Organisation of Kettlebell Sport England and The All Ireland Lifting Federation. We look forward to exploring on how we can collaborate our activities in the near future as we work towards our common goal of getting kettlebell sport the respect and awareness it deserves.

A new Commitee is now required to continue the GSU journey. We will be seeking nominations for Committee positions at the end of April from our members. Full details on these positions will be posted in our members section shortly. In addition we will be appointing a GSU administrative Team from the recent volunteers to conduct the day to day operational tasks of GSU.
Exciting times lie ahead for GSU. We can’t wait!