Laura's preparation went very well and, with the help of our interns and her gym-mates, we were able to get in some good technical practice using the commands and demands that she would face in the competitive context. Her taper went smoothly and was well-timed yet just a few days before the meet it was confirmed that she would not get a spot.
We did well in making this a non-issue and proceeded with our mini-meet plan, which we were able to do two days after the official meet. One of our interns, Erin, had experience back-in-the-day as both a powerlifting competitor and an official. I served as another referee as did a rotating cast of gym-mates. Over the next two-and-a-half hours, with her gym-mates trading off between training and officiating, Laura was able to see success on all nine of her lifts, which was our goal for the meet. She lifted personal bests in her squat, bench and deadlift (185 pounds/105/190).
Thank you to all our team members including our interns Erin and Eric, our lifters, and of course Laura for having the guts to commit, prepare, and then see it through. Thanks also to Su for taking photos.