Burnaby – On Thursday, the Canadian Powerlifting Union’s Executive Board deliberated, voted and decided to officially withhold the following National Teams from attending the following 2020 International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) events:
Bench Press Worlds (Russia), Oct 11-13
Classic Worlds (Belarus), Sept 23- Oct 3
Masters Worlds (South Africa), Nov 13-22
NAPF Championships (Cayman Islands), Nov 18-24
From their website – The priority of the CPU is to ensure the safety and health of its athletes, coaches and officials. With the ongoing travel advisories, outbreaks, and quarantine protocols, the CPU made this decision with the utmost seriousness. The Executive Board understands the importance and disruption this will cause to our world athletes, and we must look to be a role model in the global community and show actionable support in doing our part to prevent any undue health risks to our athletes, officials, coaches, and their communities.
This directly affects Sumeet Sharma. The Fraser Valley corrections officer is also a world class lifter.
In October 2019, Sharma was a gold medal winner for Team Canada at the North American Powerlifting Championships in Panama City.
In March of this year, he won Gold in his class at the Canadian Nationals in Winnipeg.
In May, he was planning to go to the Czech Republic to represent Canada at the World’s Powerlifting Championships.
All of those contests are dropped for the year. responding to FVN for a response, Sharma was philosophical. “I’m sure it was a tough decision to make by the committee, but it was the right one. I still on plan training hard and representing Canada next year.”
