EUROPA

On the last Saturday of July, we attended EUROPA Battle of Champions, a sports and supplement exposition at the Connecticut Convention Center.  EUROPA is a two day event that travels to major cities around the country over the course of the year.  Along with body building, cross fit, and martial art competitions, this year's exposition also featured the IPA Powerlifting Championship.  Two members of The Refuge - Nick Purro and Brian LaPila - competed in the Championship and at the end of the day, both went home winners.  Nick won the Full Power competition for his weight class and his total of 1875 lbs gives him IPA Pro and Elite status.  Brian won his age and weightclass in the Raw Bench Press competition, setting a new IPA World Record along the way.  Although not as intimate as most events that we attend, EUROPA was definitely an experience - there were a lot of big names in the powerlifting world in attendance and the personalities at the expo itself were quite entertaining.

We have the best kids.  While they might drive us crazy, not that many 5 and 7 year olds can sit through an entire day at a powerlifting meet without complaint - and this was their second meet in two weeks!

Watching the martial arts expo. 

Team Napper - she truly can sleep anywhere! 

Team Refuge