BREWER – Athletic triumph is not a new sensation for Dr. Moshe Myerowitz, but that didn’t dampen the excitement of setting a new state record at the Maine State Powerlifting Championships Saturday. Myerowitz, 75, benched 115.5 pounds, breaking the 115-pound record for the male 75-79 age group.

Myerowitz, a Bangor chiropractor, knows the sweet taste of victory from his racewalking days. He holds two international gold medals, three silver and two bronze for racewalking. He also won six American racewalking championships and set a national record in 1990. He referees high school and middle school basketball and field hockey in the Bangor area.

Three years ago, he decided to start weight training, telling himself, “I need to condition myself better … to keep up my skills, my reaction time.”

Earlier this winter, when a member of the Union Street Athletics powerlifting team approached Myerowitz at the gym, he was surprised.

“I said I don’t lift very much, only 120 pounds,” he said, not knowing that by benching 120 pounds, he already tied the national record. Hearing that, Myerowitz agreed to give it a shot. Unfortunately, all did not go according to plan.

On New Year’s Eve, Myerowitz slipped on a patch of black ice and fell. “I landed on my head first,” he said. He had a concussion and wasn’t able to train. “I was fortunate – not a broken bone, no motor dysfunction, no sensory dysfunction, just vertigo. I realized science was right, the world does spin.”

With only three weeks left to train, Myerowitz was worried he wouldn’t be able to get back to where he had been. Now, instead of hoping to blow the record out of the water, he was hoping to meet it. “For nine weeks, I didn’t train. Nine weeks of deconditioning. I cut my load back by 40 percent.” But by the weekend before the competition, he said he was back up to 120 pounds.

The Maine Games presented the competition at the Brewer Auditorium on Saturday. Not knowing the rules and regulations, Myerowitz was apprehensive.

“After the first round, I was absolutely comfortable,” he said. It was just getting through the warm-up and the first lift.

Competitors have three attempts to make their lift, and on each one, they usually increase the weight, starting with something they know they’ll be able to pull off. Someone who is trying to break a state record is given a fourth opportunity.

Myerowitz followed that strategy. He benched 93.69 pounds the first round, 104.72 pounds the second, and 115.5 pounds on the third.

“I didn’t realize I’d broken the record on the third lift. I was looking to go up to 121.” Regardless, Myerowitz was proud to have made three successful lifts. “God was good and I was able to set a new state record for my age group,” he said.

“The reason I do this is to give other people who are older encouragement. This is something new for me … At any age, things can happen, and people should be encouraged not to wither and die, and to do things,” he said.

Myerowitz is going to keep lifting and competing.

“My goal is to ultimately lift 180 pounds,” he said. When asked by a young basketball player why he keeps refereeing at his age, Myerowitz answered, “As long as I get to the end of the line before you do, I’m not going to hang up my shoes.”