Peter Musa of Price Township, PA won the 69kg (151.8lb) class at the American Open Weightlifting Championship in Cincinnati Ohio last Friday. Eighteen year old Peter Musa won his first open weightlifting competition this past weekend at the Holiday Inn Eastgate, in Cincinnati Ohio. Musa has been a School age champion for 5 consecutive years, winning his weight class from 2005 ? 2009. He also earned the title of overall champion for his age group in 2005, 2007 and 2009, and best lifter overall in 2009. He won the National Junior Championship for 2 consecutive years in 2008 and 2009. Now he adds an American Open Championship to his titles as a weightlifter.

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Musa snatched 122 kg (268 lbs) and clean and jerked 156 kg (343.2 lbs) for a total of 178 kg ? 8 kg more than his previous best. He was in a head to head battle with Derrick Johnson of Missouri Valley Weightlifting, who he had placed second to last year. Johnson had the advantage of being the lighter lifter and could have won if he totaled the same as Musa. But Musa had a one kg lead after the snatch portion of the competition.

The contest really got exciting during the clean and jerks. Musa made a successful lift with 147 kg, followed by an unsuccessful attempt by Johnson at 148 kg. Johnson repeated 148 successfully to take back the title, but then Musa made a successful lift with 152 kg, a personal record. When Johnson called for 154, Musa then called for 155 forcing Johnson to call for 155. Musa then called for 156 kg. Since Johnson had used all of his changes he took the 155 kg clean and jerk and had a successful lift, which was a personal record. Musa then took 156 kg, for a 5 kg personal record clean and jerk. Since Musa does a squat jerk which looks a lot different than the split jerk style that everyone else at the competition does, his jerks were very dramatic. The crowd went wild when he did a perfect squat jerk with 156 kg and won the competition with a 2 kg lead over Johnson.

Musa started weightlifting when he was 10 and half years old under the tutelage of his mother Joanne Musa, who is a Master National and World Champion, and their coach Peter Roselli from Frenchtown NJ. At 13, Musa won his first school age championship, and he won his first Junior Championship when he was 16 years old. His next national competition will be the USA Weightlifting National Junior Championship at Houston Texas, February 18-20, 2011. This is a qualifying competition for the Junior Worlds which will be held in Penang, Malaysia in June 2011.