Uplifting Event Hits Spokane On Saturday

Forty years ago, recalled Gus Rethwisch, “only one man in the world could bench press 500 pounds.”

Saturday at the Red Lion Inn in the Spokane Valley, two men will attempt a world-record 800 pounds. Both have lifted in excess of 700. One barely missed on a previous attempt at 800.

“They’re the two best (bench-pressers) in the world,” Rethwisch said of Houston’s Anthony Clark and Chicago’s Craig Tokarski.

They’ll be at the Red Lion to headline the Snapple Great Northern Strength Extravaganza, a bench-press and dead-lift competition that has drawn 140 entries from throughout the Northwest, California and British Columbia. Twenty are from Spokane.

Preliminaries begin at 8:30 a.m., competition at 11. Clark and Tokarski are expected to lift between 1 and 3 p.m.

Clark, considered the world’s strongest man, lifted 770 pounds recently at a meet in Philadelphia en route to a world-record 2,600 pounds combined for the bench press, squat (a world-record 1,100 pounds) and dead lift (730).

“He just missed 800” in the bench press, said Rethwisch. “For this competition, he has one goal in mind - to become the first man to bench press 800.”

Tokarski, who has a best of 733 pounds, said, “I expect to do 760-765.”

The evolution of the bench press has seen the 5-foot-9, 355-pound Clark and the 5-10, 295-pound Tokarski distance themselves from the competition. “The closest to them are 725-728 pounds,” said Rethwisch. “There are only a couple of others over 700.”

Clark, 31, who earns $160,000 a year as a lifter and inspirational speaker - “he’s a born-again Christian who gives a lot of demonstrations and talks to inner-city kids,” said Rethwisch - works out with more weight than most men can attain in competition.

“He does 15 reps of 500 pounds - without stopping,” said Rethwisch.

Tokarski, 28, is a Chicago police officer.

Rethwisch, who is putting on the event in conjunction with local gym and fitness center operator Giorgio Usai, said the strength extravaganza will feature competition in five divisions in the bench press and three in the dead lift.

“Only nine lifters will do both,” said Rethwisch. “Most are specialists in one or the other.”

Most competitive classes will be at 181 and 275 pounds in the novice division. Tickets, available at the door, are $15, $10 and $5.

A side attraction will be an appearance by the man who played “Buzz Saw” in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie “The Running Man.”

Those who purchase a $15 ticket receive a photo of Buzz Saw and Schwarzenegger from a fight scene in the movie autographed by Buzz Saw.

“Giorgio is the man with the vision; he’s the reason this thing got put together,” said Rethwisch, who lives in Bend, Ore.