WATCH: Highlands junior powerlifter aiming to conquer Europe
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A junior powerlifter from the Highlands will soon be bidding to be crowned one of Europe’s strongest teenagers.
Joel Aragoneses, of Aviemore, aims to bounce back from an unfortunate training injury to give the new International Powerlifting Federation world champion Austrian Demir Hamza (18) a run for his money in the sub-junior 105-kilogrammes class.
The pair will go head to head in the 2023 European Powerlifting Federation European Junior Championships in Budapest in Hungary which gets under way on October 10.
Aragoneses competes for Spain having claimed the Campeonato de Espana Junior-Subjunior de Powerlifting Carranque under-18 title in the -105kgs category a year ago whilst still attending Kingussie High School.
He now works for High Life Highland at Aviemore Community Centre as a leisure assistant and fitness instructor leading classes including circuits, spinning and barbell training.
Since taking up the sport properly just over two years ago the 17 year old has gone from strength to strength lifting some astonishing weights at the HLH gym and at Gym 300 Inverness.
Aragoneses said: “It is a little bit too far out now to say exactly what I hope to lift in Budapest but hopefully it will be somewhere around the 280kgs squat mark, 150kgs in the bench press and 315 to 320kgs for the deadlift.”
The latter is Aragoneses’ strongest discipline and in the past 12 months he has increasingly worked on his bench press which has been his weaker lift.
He said: “This is the area where I had most room for improvement on my result in Spain. I have just done more volume – there is no secret. It is just hard work.”
Aragoneses had been due to compete in the 2023 IPF Junior World Championships in Cluj Napoca in Romania at the start of the month until he sustained a head injury just a few weeks out from the contest.
He said: “I suffered concussion in training whilst attempting a squat. I slipped and the bar hit the back of my head and that meant that I had to sit out a couple of weeks of training.
“It was just a small bump in the road. I still went to Romania to watch the competition which was very useful and it has definitely whetted my appetite for Budapest.”
Hamza won the Best Lifter award on GL points for his performance in the sub-Junior 105-kgs class.
The GL point formula is an attempt to compare the achievements of lifters of different body weights and is used by the IPF and its affiliates.
Aragoneses, who hails from La Linea dela Concepcion near Gibraltar and moved to Aviemore six years ago, admits it will be a very tough task to dislodge his older opponent next month.
He said: “Winning a silver medal is my target at this stage if the lifts are there on the day but if not then that’s fine.
“Demir Hamza is very good but moves up to the older age category next year whilst I will still be competing in the juniors.”
Asked if Hamza was aware of his Spanish challenger, Aragoneses said: “Yes.”
Around 30 individuals representing 30 countries are expected to compete in the division with the pair.
Gym 300 Inverness has calibrated equipment – the recognised weights and bars used in international competition.
Aragoneses explained: “Calibrated plates are thinner so they are denser and tend to feel different and more heavier than the bumper plates.”
The single red calibrated weight plates in the video are 25 kilogrammes.
He thanked his coach Theo Goff, mother Fuensanta and his family and friends and High Life Highland for their support.
At the worlds, Hamza traded the sub-junior squat world record back and forth with John Endoso, of the UAE, before Endoso’s final attempt was turned down, leaving him to claim the record with 311kgs.
Hamza was leagues ahead on bench press and cemented his win with a sub-junior raw deadlift world record of 330.5kgs and sub-junior raw total record of 851.5kgs.
