The Annual Shakthi Raw Powerlifting meet took place on the 1st of September which saw some of the strongest lifters from around the country represent their teams and clubs. For the first time there was over 150 participants taking part in multiple categories with entrants from the forces and a variety of reputed gyms taking part. The defending champions from the Sri Lanka army team was the one to beat and saw elite lifters in all the respective categories. The Raw Powerlifting does not permit and support gear other than a Belt and Knee Sleeves.
Darin and Ransilu were part of a team of 13 Athletes from High Octane Fitness and were arguably the most experienced in this field with commonwealth colours under their belt.
The Crowd was entertained which saw the Highest Lifts and Totals for the day put down by the athletes from High Octane Fitness. Ransilu, Indika, Darin and Dhanushka were the only athletes to surpass a Total of 600kg and Deadlift over 250kg with ease. Darin broke the Sri Lanka Raw Bench Press Record of 170kg with a lift of 177.5Kg with ease while Dhanushka Broke the Squat Record in the 93kg Class with a lift of 252.5 Kg. Ransilu did a comfortable 300kg Deadlift. The 4 giants seem to be preserving energy as they will be representing Sri Lanka in the Asian Championships in Mongolia in December.
Ranga Wimalasuriya and Suren Perera obtained 2nd Runners up in their classes.
The High Octane Fitness team dominated all the classes and went on to Win the overall Championship.
The Womens Team of High Octane Fitness were overall runners up with Ashini Budawatta winning the 47kg Class and Hashi Peiris winning the 57kg class. Hashi Peiris broke the deadlift record with a lift of 112.5 Kg.
Sachi Samarasinghe was placed runners up in the 57kg class and Anya Rathnayake 3rd in the 63kg class.