This year’s powerlifting season began with gusto as Manchester, Great Britain and Abuja, Nigeria successfully hosted World Cups in the first prat of the years. But soon, the world health crisis brought the world along with the sporting calendar to a complete halt.

The Covid-19 lockdown caused the World Para Powerlifting to come up with a unique form of a virtual series, which went live on March 31. 

This concept of changing into a virtual platform overnight proved to be a key changer and which is more important is that a large boon for athletes trying to stay fit as well as continue training indoors during the epidemic.

With 25 athletes from 11 countries, the first ever online competition was a resounding success. That paved the way for the Online World Cup Series – a whole series of virtual competitions that were presented by BIGSER.

Head of World Para Powerlifting, Jorge Moreno said that when they created the Series, most part of the world was being locked down and full of uncertainties caused by the virus. It was their way to help athletes stay active as well as do something fun in a safe way.

Colombia’s Fabio Torres and Russia’s Vera Muratova were the winners of the first edition in the men’s and women’s events, respectively.

Torres said about his win that the online competition was really good and looked like a real event that helped athletes to remain strong.

The second series was held in May and attracted 40 athletes from 19 countries where Jordan’s Abdelkareem Khattab and Mexico’s Amalia Perez were the winners.

The third series broke the record when it comes to the number of competitors (55) while the fourth competition was the Online World Cup that had most participant nations (21). David Degtyarev of Muratova and Kazakhstan won both these two competitions.

The fifth series held in October broke a new record with 65 athletes in action competing to earn a place in the Online World Cup Series Finals in November.

Degtyarev and Perez finished first once again, followed by other seven athletes to the Finals with male and female weightlifters competing together.