A title held, a record moved
Austin Perkins walked to the deadlift with the men's -74 kg world title already secure, and then he made the platform smaller still. On 21 June, at the 2026 IPF World Classic Open in Druskininkai, Lithuania, the American closed his day on 344 kilograms, a raw world record in his class, and finished on an 891.5 kg total. He weighed 73.30 kg. He lifted close to twelve times his own bodyweight across three disciplines.
The event had been relocated to the Lithuanian spa town from Dubai, and Perkins arrived as the reigning champion and the 2026 SBD Sheffield winner. The competition unfolded as a study in control rather than risk. In the squat he opened on 325 kg, added a clean 340 kg, then failed his one attempt of the day at 345 kg. On the bench he took 197.5 kg and 207.5 kg before waving off a third lift. The margin was already opening.
Decided in the pull
The deadlift settled everything. Perkins opened on 332.5 kg to warm the strength, then loaded 344 kg — the precise weight needed to take the U74KG record by half a kilogram. The previous mark of 343.5 kg had belonged to Ilia Marichev, set earlier in the year. Perkins pulled sumo, mixed grip, no straps, and the bar moved without hesitation. He then scratched his final deadlift, leaving the third attempt untouched.
Of seven attempts across the day, he missed one. The silver medallist finished 86.5 kilograms behind him in total, a gap that reads less like a contest than a demonstration. It was his third consecutive world title, and he has not lost at these championships since his IPF debut in 2024.
That trajectory did not begin on the international stage. Perkins built his early record in the USAPL, winning a long series of domestic meets before transitioning to the IPF with the aim of testing himself abroad. As a junior he had already set world records in the squat and deadlift and taken a Best Lifter award at the 2019 University World Cup in Tartu. The move up proved correct. In March he had rewritten the squat, deadlift and total world records to win 2026 SBD Sheffield; in June he defended the world title and pushed the deadlift mark again.
What sets these performances apart is their restraint. The record fell, the title held, and the third attempts stayed on the rack — a lifter operating within himself while the field measured the distance. His 891.5 kg total now stands above the world record in the class above his own.
He is 74 kilograms. Twice over, in a single spring, he moved the ceiling of his sport and stepped back from it, unhurried.
