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Pietermaritzburg-born-and-bred powerlifting legend \u2014 and multiple times world champion \u2014 Phil Niemandt, died recently.<\/p>\n
Schooled at Alexandra High and once the owner of Warren\u2019s Gym, he entered the sport aged 37, making his debut at an event held in a school hall in Durban and \u201cblew everyone out of the water\u201d, according to his widow, Amy, who he married in 1985.<\/p>\n
ALSO READ | Obituary: Janine Joy Stephen (August 3, 1972 \u2014 June 19, 2026)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHe was just training at the old Warren\u2019s Gym when it was suggested to him that he try powerlifting and he proved a natural,\u201d said Amy.<\/p>\n She said that unlike many powerlifters who scream and banged their heads, he was \u201ca quiet lifter\u201d. Among his powerlifting achievements were his competition squat of 400kg, achieved at the 1993 WPC World Championships in France.<\/p>\n It was an equipped squat, rather than a raw squat. Equipped lifting uses specialised supportive gear that can support the lifter during the lifting attempt.<\/p>\n He competed against some of the strongest super-heavy weight powerlifters of his era, winning the World Powerlifting Congress (WPC) events in France in 1993; the United States in 1994; the United Kingdom in 1997; Austria in 1998; Canada in 1999 and the United States in 2000.<\/p>\n In 1996, he won a separate WPC competition, the WPC Can-Am World Cup in the USA. Off the performing platform, Niemandt served as vice President of the World Powerlifting Congress\u2019s Africa region and helped organize a championship meeting in Durban in 1996.<\/p>\n ALSO READ | IFP veteran and former Amafa chair Arthur Konigkramer dies at 84<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n On one occasion, he found himself in the same hotel as boxing great. George Foreman, when they both had victories to celebrate, Niemandt sent him a congratulatory message and out of that grew a friendship that traversed their sporting interests to their love of animals.<\/p>\n They would speak with one another about ways to help them.<\/p>\n \u201cPhil was always saddened and hurt by cruelty, abandonment and neglect of animals,\u201d said Amy.<\/p>\n Niemandt, described as \u201ca giant with the heart of a kitten\u201d, also extended his charitable work to children, sitting chatting to children suffering from cancer in hospices, offering inspiration.<\/p>\n Amy said he also dressed as Santa and gave presents to underprivileged kids. He exercised his brute strength in pulling a Boeing 747 for 30m at then-Jan Smuts (now OR Tambo) International Airport, equipped with a harness.<\/p>\n ALSO READ | eThekwini DA councillor Welekazi Sibiya dies after short illness<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n He repeated the feat several times with the horse section of a heavy-duty truck outside the Pietermaritzburg City Hall after having suffered a heart attack and had a triple bypass operation.<\/p>\n Niemandt repeated another truck pull at Makro, Camps Drift.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were no crowds,\u201d their daughter, Roxane, said of this achievement.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just wanted to prove he could still do it.\u201d<\/p>\n He also pulled 10 Isuzu bakkies outside the Pietermaritzburg Oval for charity.<\/p>\n