Patrik, from Northern Sweden, e-mailed me yesterday to let me know that the European Powerlifting Championships are being broadcast live for our entertainment. From his e-mail:

Greetings from the North of Sweden and SAK (home of benching legends Fredrik Svensson and Marcus Hirvonen)!
You can view the European Powerlifting Championchips LIVE on the net! Just thought id bring it to your attention.

Check out http://powerlifting.se/ (its from Köping, in Sweden).

This day was filled with some of the most awesome lifts I have seen. Mia from Sweden did 145 kilos in the deadlift and 142.5 in the squat on a bodyweight of 46kilos!

Feel free to join in on the chat at tinyurl.com/liftchat
You can find the schedule on http://www.powerlifting.se/schedule.htm
The whole thing is broadcasted live on mms://stream.bowlstream.tv/stream1

It should play fine in VLC media player or Media Player Classic, some people seem to have trouble with the live stream in Windows Media Player though.

–Patrik

BTW, our small town Sundsvall has more elite-benchers in the making. Christoffer Ahlman just took a new Swedish record, benching 203 kilos at a bodyweight of 74 kilos (competing in the 75 kilo class)

These are IPF approved lifts, so only 1 ply shirts… :)

Note that Sweden is 7 hours ahead of Central Standard Time, therefore they are 6 hours ahead of EST.
Here is the lift Patrik mentions above: