Powerlifter Blaine Sumner Bench Presses His Way To A World Record 415kg/915 Pounds

It was a miraculous performance from a champion who was nearly derailed by an injury which could have prevented him from ever competing in powerlifting again…

Blaine Sumner is at it again… the leader of the most open world records in powerlifting history has recently bench pressed 415kg/915 pounds at the 2018 IPF World Open Equipped Powerlifting Championships in Sweden.

This is a new record for both Sumner and the +120kg bodyweight bench press division. What’s even more amazing is his next bench press attempt of 425kg/937 pounds was initially passed but then it was overturned by the judges shortly after.

It was an incredible feat performed by Blaine Sumner considering a few months earlier he almost ended his career due to a squat injury when he sliced his arm open by missing the rack with 1,025 pounds on the bar… He shared his story on his official Instagram page.

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8 weeks ago I sliced my arm open missing the rack on a 1,025 lb squat. I was less than a centimeter away from ending my lifting career. And a few feet away from ending my wife’s life. Right when my equipped training was supposed to start for Worlds, this happened. The first few hours in the ER and the next few weeks I thought I was done because mentally getting under the bar again scared the daylights out of me. When I first tried lifting again I would get dizzy and light headed trying to load the bar because of the psychological trauma and I couldn’t get over the scarring memory of seeing my bodily tissue hanging out of my arm. My wife got my head screwed on straight and pushed me to overcome this fear. I cannot begin to describe what she has done for me to get ready for this meet. I’ll save that for another post. With only a couple weeks left before Worlds, I got under the bar again and had even more near catastrophes – again for a later post. I kept facing these incidents and kept coming back. I finished a heartbreaking 2nd today at the IPF Open World Championships. Only my opening squat of 1,025 lbs was passed after 1,047 lbs got turned down twice on depth. I broke my own Bench Press World Record with 915 lbs on my opening attempt and pressed 937 lbs but was overturned by the jury. I deadlifted 761 lbs for a total of 2,701 lbs, 5 lbs. behind first place. Well deserved win to Konovalov from Russia and an exceptional performance from an incredible lifter. I’ve had some heartbreaking meets in my career – but for some reason this is easier to swallow because of how different my life could have changed a few weeks ago. I don’t know what comes next in my lifting career, but thank you all for the support – I love you all!

A post shared by Blaine Sumner (@thevanillagorilla92) on Nov 10, 2018 at 9:15am PST

He was, fortunately (And by the grace of the powers above) able to come back and impress the crowd, and with the way it looked, he probably surprised himself in the process.

Sumner’s world record performance was good enough to give him second place behind rival Andrey Konovalov of Russia but he didn’t seem too concerned about the defeat as he was just happy to be competing.

He was a gracious runner-up as he congratulated and paid respect to the champion for his well-deserved win. Blaine Sumner was really lucky (Yes lucky is the right word for his narrow escape from a potentially career-ending mistake) he came out of his injury in one piece!

Congrats to Blaine Sumner for setting a new record for himself and the +120kg division in the bench press competition at the 2018 IPF World Open Equipped Powerlifting Championships!