The «500 Club» is lifting barbells (interview)

12.11.1970 (Cīņa)

Today, the Latvian organization of the physical culture and sports society "Dinamo", awarded the Order of Lenin, celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. This organization has made a great contribution to the development of sports in the republic. Today we are publishing an article about the famous weightlifters of "Dinamo".

EVERY DAY

After weeks of rain, walking through the Strēlnieku Garden on a sunny day is pure pleasure. You just want to sit down and enjoy the autumn colors. Even the boys who were practicing javelin throwing at the Dinamo stadium that day were more interested in watching the sunbeams shining in the puddles.

But right across the street, the men from the sports hall were working. Really. The weight room doesn't recognize seasons. Winter or summer — the bars rumble and magnesia dust swirls in the air. It's better for the ignorant to practice on the sidelines

— what each strongman will do in a minute, what weight he will lift, only he and the coach know. Bars on the weight floors, bars in racks, bars on pallets, but they do not stand still for a moment. Kling — a new pair of discs is attached, hands grip the ribbed metal, and the weight flies up. Ten guys lift, walk for a minute, take a breath and bend over the bar again. 

It's better not to disturb coach Mikhail Freifeld during such hours. Standing at the end of the hall, he carefully follows what is happening on the three floors. Calling a guy aside, he explains something in a low voice, then interrupts mid-sentence.

— Hands, don't forget your hands!

The Spalga team seems to cut through the noise of the hall. They talk again, but their eyes don't take their eyes off the floor.

Commands, a silent reprimand, a short note in the notebook. And even though there are no beginners in the hall, but experienced masters who can teach others, everything must be seen. Every little mistake.

- Shoulders are looser, Artur!

Heavyweight Sliede lowers the bar back to the floor and looks questioningly at the coach.

- Here it is, even more freely! 

The weight is lifted from the floor easily. Then the bar hangs in the hands, then around the knees.

- Eh-eh! 

The weight is up, though, and it seems the pull was successful this time.

The guys laugh - when the act gets more difficult, Arthur keeps roaring.

- Stop your nonsense! - Kārlis Pumpuriņš shakes his fist.

- Wait for me, there will be a physics test soon. Am I your teacher or not? - Arturs interrupts.

- Leave the weaknesses of the assistant professors behind! We are all the same here. - Karl is not even going to give up.

Jokes help you cope with heavy workloads. And if witty remarks are born during training, then it's clear that the barometer in the team is rising.

There are other moments too. 

I have to lift 130 kilograms, from knee height. The lump is still very serious. I slowly rub my hands with magnesium and go to the bar.

Nothing! The weight falls to the floor with a thud.

 "Calm down, calm down, Karl!" said Fralfeld.

On the second move — exactly the same. Karl's face has the same expression as in a race after receiving a zero — damn, what's going on here!

Freifeld explains, shows. The guys are quiet.

- Kārlis, pull the bar all the way up and put your hands back! - Vilis Pērkons comes to help his comrade.

Karl shakes his head in disapproval.

- You need to take a stick!

And the man, who easily coped with 150 kilograms in competitions, now diligently practices with a stick in front of the mirror. One subtle "thread of movement" has disappeared. Without it, the bar moves a centimeter ahead - and falls. At such moments, consciousness does not always perceive the advice of others. This thread must be found. Otherwise - the training schedule is disrupted, you have to work with small weights, but time flies.

The guys are on their way, but they are keeping an eye on how Karl is doing.

"It should be!" he says and puts his stick aside. Silence falls in the hall.

That's it! Weight up. Karl smiles all over his face.

- Where could I have left my hands in front of me!

- What did I say! Just start more calmly! — Fralfelds sighs with relief. It's obvious that he would like to go outside for a smoke after these unpleasant minutes. No way. Immediately, Artur goes to him, then Vilis.

The training continues. Four times a week, a load of 10 to 12 tons, sometimes more, that's how the men of "Dinamo" work.

What do the guys do? For example, world champion Gennady Ivanchenko? He squats with 240 kilograms on his shoulders, presses 170 in the bench press, and at the same time can bend and straighten his arms 120 times. Wow, there's something to think about. But they're used to their daily lives as members of the "five hundred club."

LITTLE HISTORY

Fifteen years ago, Riga weightlifters were beating those who had seen the USSR-USA match in Moscow.

— Who exactly is Paul Anderson?

"Hands, you know, legs..." the narrator drew huge circles in the air.

— Gauss, stand still, but we don't have men who can lift 500 kilograms in total.

At that time, the world had not yet recovered from the American giant's 512.5 kilograms. And even experts thought thoughtfully: "People like this are born once every hundred years."

The stadium was packed for the light heavyweight competition at the 4th Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR. On a steamy August afternoon, Muscovites preferred to go outside the city.

— Tomorrow, when Jabotinsky and the other five hundreders start, we'll come. Then there'll be something to see.

But in the hall, among the broad backs of the weightlifters, you could see the blue and white tracksuits of the Estonian girls. The commentators of Tallinn Radio settled in the balcony. Behind the scenes, both world and European champions were preparing for the fights, but the national team coaches Medvedev and Vorobyov did not take a step back from the young Estonian Jan Talts.

Those who came to the Shakhtar hall were not disappointed. A weightlifting spectator counts and records every kilogram in a competition. And after Talts' first attempt in the clean and jerk, both the audience and the judges were counting feverishly. After the second attempt, the hall was excited, but the "culprit" himself, limping slightly, went behind the curtain. A cold jet of chlorethyl, a tighter leg tie - and at 192.5 kilograms! He pushed, held the weight up for a long, long time . . .

The incredible had happened — the first light heavyweight athlete in the world lifted 500 kilograms! The giants of the «Five Hundred Club» simply turned their heads… The result of the 90-kilogram guy was incomparably more valuable!

True, the light heavyweights did not become 500-pounders so easily. At the beginning of this year, there were a total of 6 of them, including our own Kārlis Pumpurlņš. 

In April of this year, at the national championships in Vilnius, coaches and participants carefully studied Riga native Gennady Ivanchenko - after all, the guy set a world record in middleweight at the end of last year - 495 kilograms. True, he had an injury, is being treated, but - who knows...

In the nervous crowd that reigned backstage during the competition, Gennady was the calmest. He arrived with a large bag, changed his clothes without haste, put a thermos on the windowsill and lay down on a folding bed. Freifeld vigilantly guarded the peace of his student.

Gennady warmed up just as leisurely and sensibly. There was nothing to talk about. Everything had been discussed earlier. All that remained was to wait for the secretary to call him to the bar.

Passions were bubbling around, the men were rejoicing, they were gloating after their failures. The coaches tried at all costs to save what could still be saved. But two men remained silent.

Lalks! Gennady went to the bar with a stony face, Freifeld stayed backstage, and only the hands that were strangling the guy's left-over tracksuit spoke clearly.

Second in the press, second in the snatch, but after these two exercises, no one

There was no doubt - it must be 500 kilograms.

185 kilograms on the bar. Ivanchenko!

And there were 500! The guy's weight does not exceed 82.5 kilograms, he is perfectly grown, proportional, fast.

And so Gennady Ivanchenko opened a new stage in the history of weightlifting.

When the anthem sounded in the hall, Gennady stood on the podium with the same calm face as during the race. But at the impromptu press conference, he surprised even the most experienced journalists: "Nothing special. An average result."

Such is the story of the Five Hundred.

. . . Pumpurlņš, Sliede, Bročs, Ivančenko, Poltorackis — there are five of them in Latvia for now. Vilis Pērkons is also in their group there. . . .

HOW THEY BEGAN . . .

It must be said, whatever.

The young builder Pumpuriņš heard that they were giving badges to those who lifted 15 kilograms more than their own body weight. He came to the "Daugava" gym, tried his hand, and was indignant that the coach made him come again and again. The norm was met the first time. But the coach knew what he was doing - a beginner who presses 90 kilograms cannot be pushed out of his hands.

In the army, Kārlis became a master, but then his absentee battle with the Swede Bo Johansson began at «Dinamo». The world record in bench press traveled from Riga to Gothenburg and back. He improved it five times. Last year, he became the first Latvian athlete to enter the 500m. Then failure after failure came. And Kārlis decided — it was enough to «cut» the weight, he had to move up to the next category.

It was started by Kārlis Pumpurlņš, a student at the Riga Polytechnic Institute.

Rural electrician Vilis Pērkons traveled from one village to another, carrying a homemade barbell from Iīdzi. And probably even now many housewives remember the quiet guy who asked permission to train in the kitchen in the evenings. It seems incredible that, seeing a trainer a few weeks a year, he nevertheless fulfilled the norm of a master of sports even before military service.

Now, while training at Dinamo, he has already reached 495 kilograms twice. Five kilograms — two small metal discs. — and, if I may say so, the grandmaster's limit would have been reached. 

Arturs Sliede  was a volleyball player for the youth team, later a republican champion in shot put. In the winter, he lifted weights to build strength. There were no heavy weights at the Polytechnic Institute. Arturs competed willingly. And when he exceeded 400 kilograms, the shot putter became a weightlifter. Now Arturs Sliede weighs 130 kilograms and his teammates believe that reaching six hundred in the triathlon is not such an impossible thing for him.

Some had the hard work they had gained, others were given strength by sports, but if someone had told them five years ago that Gennady Ivanchenko would become a world champion, they would have been surprised. 

When the fragile guy came to the "Dinamo" gym to develop strength and become more masculine, after six months he reached 275 kilograms in the triathlon in the welterweight category. However, the old truth remains that love of work and passion are the most important things. In 1967, the triathlon total reached 410 kilograms, last year - 495. And this year - the national champion, European champion, world champion, 505 kilograms in the triathlon. But the year is not over yet

** *

— How pleasant. — Having come out of the «Dinamo» sports hall, Genadly eagerly inhaled the cool autumn air. - Training in the afternoon, then hurry to the trolleybus and go home - I have to prepare for classes. Columbus «took away» a whole month. But I have to finish high school.

— How did it feel to start in Columbus?

— cheered the American spectators. The hall was packed all day long, and the audience understood the sport. They applauded not only the winners, but all those who fought bravely. The illegal disqualification of many athletes, allegedly for doping, is, of course, unpleasant. I thought: they will take away the medal — and then? Have I come here just for that? I have to show the world what I can achieve in order to go home with a clear conscience.

— Opponents? — he asked. — Frankly, I don't look at them in the race. Others run after them, watch, calculate, and, as we say, athletes burn out.

But that's how it is - one fights for a medal, another - to defeat a certain opponent, another - to show their best result.

— World records are now in Pavlov's hands. When is your next fight scheduled? — I asked.

— I know Paviova. We've competed together. A gifted, promising guy. But the state

He won't be the only opponent in the team championship in December. I think at least five people will exceed 500 kilograms in average weight.

— This year has really been great for you. What do you expect next year?

— I'll spin like a squirrel in a wheel. I have to finish school, start at the 5th Spartakiad of the Peoples of the USSR, the European and World Championships. Of course, if I get into the team. And also — I'm thinking of entering university.

— Which faculty?

— Legal. That was decided a long time ago.

We talked for a while longer, then Gennady said goodbye:

— Excuse me — I have to run. I have a test tonight.

U. Beķeris