Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

Granite City Strongman: Janek claims top honors at world powerlifting event

GRANITE CITY -- Standing a little taller 6-feet-3-inches and weighing in at 308 pounds, Granite City's Chris Janek is still a newcomer in the world of powerlifting.

But the 31-year-old Janek has wasted little time making a name for himself as one of the world's best powerlifters.

Just five months removed from winning his first national title at the United Powerlifting Association National finals, Janek claimed the Southern Powerlifting Federation World Championship last month in Nashville, Tenn.

Powerlifting for just more than two years, Janek was competing in just his fourth powerlifting national- or world-caliber event.

"It just comes from a lot of hard work and training. In the world of powerlifting, I'm not that big. There are guys twice as big as I am," Janek said. "After the national championships in April, I took about a week off and then started hitting it hard again.

"I owe a lot to my coach (Randy) Presswood and my training partner, Carl Schultz. They were both very helpful."

Competing in the 308-pound weight class with 20 other lifters, Janek hefted a total of 1,075 pounds in the squat lift, 705 pounds in the bench press and 770 pounds in the dead lift.

Janek's total of 2,550 pounds was a personal-best, breaking the mark of 2,502 he recorded at the national finals.

"I set a personal record so that was good, but I was a little disappointed with my bench press," Janek said. "I wanted to go 800 pounds, but my technique was just a little off that day."

Janek owns and is a trainer at Tank's Training Facility in Granite City.

Open for just a few months, Tank's has already begun to make a name for itself as one of the area's top training centers.

"My initial hope was to make it a private facility, but the response we're gotten from the different athletes, coaches and teams in the area, has been so positive that we've decided to keep it public," Janek said. "We're just ecstatic with the response we've gotten."

With his powerlifting and business going so well, Janek is unsure if he will continue playing for the Utah Blaze of the Arena Football League.

A defensive lineman for several years in different arena football leagues, Janek found himself out of football when the 2009 AFL season was canceled because of the recession.