Not too long Ago..

Antonio Krastev trained at Lost Battalion Hall in Queens...where I go every once in a while. He would train twice a day six times a week. His methods are in the Weightlifting Encyclopedia (pages 305-306). You couldn't hear a pin drop when Antonio went into that start position...the long delay...the silence...and the the pull with head tilted off to one side..then he's under it and up on his feet in a flash. What I liked best was the celebrity of it all: the entourage escorting him to and from the platform, the coaches, the water guy, the expediter, the guy holding the smelling salts (that was me!)...everybody involved.