Three world records for Iron Ison

LOCAL super strongman Zane Ison recently showed off his super powers at the 2013 Global Power-lifting Committee (GPC) World Weightlifting Championships held at Eger in Hungary last week.

The Zululand business and family man showed off his ‘Zulu-power’ when he set no fewer than three world and European records in his category.

Known as the ‘Big Man’ or ‘Batista’, Zane certainly flew the Zululand flag high.

Ison is a member of the South African Strongman Union and over the past few years has competed in many Strongman challenges including the South Africa Strongman Championships.

However his aim and dream was to represent South Africa, which came true when he decided to join the GPC.

Within months Zane stamped his mark on the sport and was selected to represent the GPC SA team at the Eger world event.

The order of lifting was as follows: Monday 23 September – raw bench-press, Tuesday 24 September – raw power-lifting (women and lightweight men), Wednesday 25 September – raw power-lifting (heavyweight men), Thursday 26 September – equipped bench-press, Friday 27 September – equipped power-lifting (women and lightweight men) and Saturday 28 September – equipped power-lifting (heavyweight men).

The Big Man competed on Wednesday in the raw power-lifting (heavyweight men) under the MM2-SHW category (140kg plus age group 45-49 years).

This consisted of bench press, squats and dead-lift, which required three lifts per event that all have to be approved by three judges.

Zane managed the following lifts – squats : 230kg (opening lift), 250kg (second lift) and 275kg (world record on final lift); bench press: 175kg (opening lift),185kg (second lift) and 190kg (world record on final lift) and dead-lift: 250kg (opening lift), 270kg (second lift) and 285kg (world record on final lift), with an overall weight of 750kg (world record).