Andy Howard

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Andy Howard





‘Andy has the Power’ 30th November 2006 Teacher, father and now national powerlifter Andy Howard has qualified to compete in the British Powerlifting Final 2007. Andy, 37 and head of the Humanities faculty at Thomas Lord Audley School, took up Powerlifting five years ago after seeing other members training for it at Hamiltons Fitness Centre in Colchester’s Business Park. Andy competed at the East Midlands Championship in Hitchin on Saturday where he achieved a personal best total of 690kg, which was just enough to allow him to compete in next year’s prestigious British Final to be held on the 18^th June at the Birmingham City Sports Centre. The competition starts with the squat lift. Andy began with an easy 240kg, following on with a good 250k. He unfortunately failed his third and final attempt of 257.5kg. Next came the bench press. Andy felt that he had made some good progress in his training for this lift recently so he opened at 177.5kg. He managed it easily and also his next lift of 182.5kg. For his last attempt he asked for 185kg, but only just failed with the judges voting two to one against. This gave Andy a sub-total at the two-thirds mark of 432.5kg, with only the deadlift to go. He knew that he needed to match his personal best of 257.5kg for this lift to be able to qualify for the British Final. He opened with 245kg, which he managed with some difficulty, then went straight to 257.5kg. Andy’s team-mates were bringing the house down with their very vocal support and, with their encouragement, he managed to successfully complete the lift. Andy said “I am overjoyed at the outcome of the competition. I have been so near it many times in the last two years. I am looking forward to competing in the British Final in June of next year and between now and then I will be training as hard as possible. ” Stuart Hamilton, owner of Hamiltons Fitness Centre, where Andy trains said “This is a massive step for him and means he is now ranked in the top 10 lifters in the whole of Britain. We’ve seen Andy progress at tremendous speed, right from the moment that he started and it makes us all proud to see him do so well. He works very hard and deserves every success.”
Colchester Teacher makes History Local Teacher Andy Howard recently took the Bronze medal in the British Unequipped Powerlifting Championships. Howard aged 37, who teaches History at the Thomas Lord Audley School in Monkwick competed in the British Powerlifting Finals in Milton Keynes. Howard was up against the best lifters from all of Britain and although he managed to lift the same total as the second place lifter he just lost out due to being slightly heavier in body weight. He competes in the under 90Kg class where each competitor has to squat, bench press and deadlift, the total of their best lifts in each then determines their position. Only using a belt, he squatted 202½ Kg, bench pressed 145kg and dead-lifted 252½ Kg for a personal best total of 600Kg. At the end of the competition Howard was also drug tested by UK Sport who are the official organisation that are playing an increasing part in all sports. The results confirmed that Howard is a drug free lifter. Howard said “This has confirmed all of the support that I have received from my colleagues and all of the pupils at Thomas Lord Audley. They have backed me all the way and a number of the pupils have even been inspired by my example to start weight training .” His coach, Stuart Hamilton, owner of Hamiltons Fitness Centre in Severalls Park said “Andy trains really hard and deserves every success. We are all behind him one hundred percent“. The next step for Howard is to qualify for the British Equipped finals in 2007 which he has to do by the end of this year. He added “It’s great to now be recognised at a national level. I can now work on getting selected for the British team and hope to be competing in Europe very soon.”
Best Lifts Equipped Squat 250kg Bench Press 185kg Deadlift 262.5kg Unequipped Squat 210kg Bench Press 145kg Deadlift 252.5kg Results National 2006 British Unequipped Powerlifting Championships U90kg 3rd Place 2003 All Midlands Team Championship 2nd Place Divisional 2006 East Midlands Unequipped Powerlifting Championships U90kg 1st Place 2005 East Midlands Unequipped Powerlifting Championships U90kg 1st Place 2005 East Midlands Powerlifting Championships U90kg 2nd Place 2004 East Midlands Powerlifting Championships U90kg 3rd Place 2003 East Midlands Powerlifting Championships U90kg 2nd Place 2002 East Midlands Powerlifting Championships U90kg 3rd Place Divisional Bench Press 2006 East Midlands Divisional 2nd Place 2005 Anglian Open 2nd Place 2005 East Midlands Divisional 2nd Place