Although he won his weight class at the recent Western Canadian Powerlifting Championships, Riley Bertrand felt he could have done better.

Originally from Ste. Rose, Bertrand had a squat of 265-kg or 584 pounds, a bench press of 162.5-kg or 358 pounds and a deadlift of 292.5-kg or 645 pounds at the event held in Brandon, Aug. 10 to 13.

His overall weight of 720-kg or 1,587 pounds tied him with another competitor, but his overall score of 94.43 was enough to capture the gold in the 93-kg weight class, finishing .22 points ahead of the runner-up.

Bertrand was pleased he won, but he admitted he didn’t do as well as he had hoped.

“I only got my first squat. My second squat I got called on depth and then I overcorrected on my third. And then that put me in a hole going into the rest of the competition, trying to make up that ground that I lost,” he said. “So I was happy I came away with the win, but definitely not the performance I was hoping for.”

In preparing for the event, Bertrand did his usual training regimen, which included lots of heavy lifting in each of the three disciplines.

“I felt really good going into the competition. No injuries or anything. But it just wasn’t my day,” he said.

Bertrand is now eyeing competing at provincials in February or he may wait until nationals next September.

In the meantime, Bertrand plans to continue training, building more muscle to continue competing in his current weight class.

“I just finally moved up to 93-kg this year, so I’m still trying to fill it out properly with enough muscle mass,” he said.

Bertrand now lives in Winnipeg and teaches Grades 4 and 5 in Beausejour. His students, he said, think it’s pretty cool that he competes in powerlifting.

“There was a writeup about me in the Brandon Sun, after the competition, so they think I’m famous,” he said.