Most people know Sousanh Chanthalangsy-Bornilla as the owner of One of a Thai.
But when she’s not serving up some of Yellowknife’s tastiest dishes, she’s busy proving how much stronger she is than most and showed just how good she is this past weekend in Edmonton.
Chanthalangsy-Bornilla competed at the Grit Power Open powerlifting in the Alberta capital and made sure everyone knew who she was when all was said and done. The soon-to-be 40-year-old (she’s 39 until Thursday) competed in the Master 1 division and managed to squat 440 lbs., a bench press of 231 lbs. and a deadlift of 452 lbs.
The squat number set a brand new provincial record for the Master class in Alberta and an unofficial national record in the Master class.
Chanthalangsy-Bornilla said the reason it’s unofficial is because the squat wasn’t at the regional or provincial level, therefore it wasn’t recorded, though her provincial record will stand.
“I just crushed it,” said Chanthalangsy-Bornilla on Tuesday. “I wasn’t just going in to lift — I’ve put in a lot of work and discipline to prepare for meets.”
Squatting in powerlifting competition isn’t simply a matter of going down and coming back up. It must be done a certain way and there are commands that need to be followed as Chanthalangsy-Bornilla explained.
“It is very technical and you have to listen,” she said. “You have to go down to (proper) depth and wait for the judge to shout “rack”.”
Rack means the weight can be returned to the starting position and if it isn’t performed properly, competitors can be disqualified, she added.
“Seeing all white lights is the key,” she said.
Chanthalangsy-Bornilla’s last attempt on the deadlift was actually better than her official mark. It was 462 lbs. and she got it off the ground and up into position but it wasn’t allowed.
“There was a hitch in there somewhere and it was all red-lights,” she said. “I got called on it but you know what? I still call it my personal record because I lifted it.”
Not only did Chanthalangsy-Bornilla win her own class, she ended up taking home the award for best female in master class and the overall best female lifter out of the 19 who entered. This is the third competition Chanthalangsy-Bornilla has entered in the past two years and it’s the third time she’s walked away with the overall title.
“I think I did alright,” she said with a laugh.
Her first competition was in February 2020 at a meet in Manitoba and she had plans on doing more that year.
But we all know what happened later that year and her plans were scuttled.
“I was so happy to get that first gold medal in Manitoba and being the overall best and then the world shut down,” she said. “It was still the same in 2021 but I decided to do it big this year.”
Before Edmonton, Chanthalangsy-Bornilla competed in an event in Saskatoon and won overall best female there, though she said it wasn’t as big of an event participant-wise as Edmonton was.
“There were still some super-strong women but I managed to win my class,” she said.
The one thing Chanthalangsy-Bornilla said she still enjoys whenever she travels to meets is the respect she receives once people see that she isn’t there to simply make up the numbers.
“When they find out I’m from Yellowknife, they don’t think much,” she said. “But then I get the big numbers and I tell them my age and they’re shocked. There’s a new respect when they see what I can do.”
Chanthalangsy-Bornilla’s plan is to prepare for the Western Canadian Powerlifting Championships in Calgary in September and that’s where she figures she can really make some noise. It’s the gateway to national and even international-level competition, something she’s been wanting to do for a while.
“The national level is very possible and I feel like doing (westerns) will make it more real,” she said. “I would love to represent Yellowknife there and that’s my goal.”
To do it, she said, she knows she’ll have to up her current best lifts.
“I’m shooting to get 455-460 lbs. in the squat,” she said. “I know I can lift 462 lbs. in the deadlift but I’m going to train for 475 lbs. and bench press 245 lbs.”