BWL Open Series Standings

Round 2 of the BWL Open Series is almost over with two out of the three regions having held their second events.

Barton Athletic Club played host to the BWL North Open Series while Elite Bodyworks in Basingstoke provided the venue for the South Open Series.

Even from the early results, there have been some significant shifts in the overall points classification of each respective competition held so far. The BWL Open Series is scored on Sinclair points which takes into account body weight.

The top male and female lifter from each with the highest combined Sinclair score after three events will receive a cash prize of £250 courtesy of BWL.

Only 2.49 points separate Lou Heron and Jasmine Isoyama in the overall Woman’s rankings after two stages of the BWL South Open Series. On the day, the margin was even smaller between the pair as Isoyama won round 2 by just 1.17 points to close the gap.

The competition has closed up considerably since round 1 as early frontrunners Jess Gordon-Brown, Faye Pittman and Laura Hollobon were all absent from round 2.

That has brought Heron and Isoyama right into contention and with little to separate the pair, the title is set to go right down to the wire. Meanwhile, Kris Speed seized the lead of the Men’s competition with a dominant display. He lifted 297kg at 92.1kg bodyweight to score 340.91

In Round 1 Speed finished 1.09 points behind Jonathan Chin, but the latter was absent from this event to focus on his World Championships preparation. Currently, Speed’s nearest challenger is Guildford’s Henry Woodason, but he finds himself 79.43 adrift of Speed’s total tally of 674.38.

In the second round of the BWL North Open Series, Oliver Dobson made his debut by taking top honours. He finished first by lifting 226kg at 88.8kg bodyweight for a Sinclair score of 309.53

However, Teesside Barbell’s Warren Nightingale was the biggest winner having catapulted up the overall standings into first place by virtue of having competed strongly in two events.

Nightingale finished 5th in round 1 but backed that up with a superb second place at Barton which many of his previous points rivals failed to attend.

With a total tally of 534.38, the Teessider now finds himself in pole position for the £250 cash prize.

Nightingale is currently 154.08 clear of round 1 winner Allan King and also has the added advantage of competing on home soil in the final event which is taking place in Middlesbrough.

There were also strong performances by North-East clubs in the Women’s competition as Cube Academy’s Rachel Armstrong surged from tenth to second overall after finishing runner up on the day.

Jade Wilson retained her lead in the overall rankings by winning the event. She has now accumulated 209.09 points and holds an advantage of 15.43 over Armstrong going into the deciding round.

This weekend the second round of the BWL Midlands Open Series is due to be held at MSC Performance in Birmingham on the 27th of July. Tickets can be purchased here