AURORA - There aren't many 75 year-olds who can say they lift 345 pounds over their heads.

But Owen Van Buskirk is an exception.

For him, weightlifting is a passion.

It's a passion that has led him to become a serious competitor on not just the state level but on the national and world stage.

To his credit, he has earned the New York State Masters Class Championship three years in a row, the National Masters' Championship three years running and the World Masters' in 2003, as well as holding the national title for the deadlift with 345 pounds and the power curl with 125 pounds.

Van Buskirk is modest about his accomplishments.

"It gets easier as you get older," Van Buskirk said. "I couldn't have done this when I was 25, 35 or 45. That competition is lifting weight that I couldn't imagine, but when you get old enough, the competition gets easier."

As an example, Van Buskirk points to the state competition where there were only five other competitors.

"They were the five or six strongest guys in the country, at least that showed up," Van Buskirk said. "They were all good, all good physical specimens. You wouldn't want to see most people in their 70s lifting these weights. These were the best there are and the next closest guy was lifting 280 pounds."

But he said the sport, even at lower weight levels, is gaining popularity with older people, in particular for the great physical benefits that come from this kind of exercise.

"There are a lot of competitors between 30 and 35," Van Buskirk said. "It is something entirely else at 50, it drops out, there is a big divide. But it is becoming more and more popular. It has been found by exercise physiologists to be beneficial for people that are 90 years-old. It is spectacular to get those benefits."

The culmination of his accomplishments came when he won the Masters' World Title in 2003, squaring off against other lifters from 28 different countries.

"I beat someone from Russia in the finals," Van Buskirk said. "I beat him by 15 or 20 pounds. When I first won the world title it was awesome. My brother-in-law teases me saying how much he would love to be the best in the world at something. I don't know if I'm the strongest old man, but I was the strongest that showed up that day."

Van Buskirk said he has long been interested in physical fitness and part of that has always been weightlifting, but it was on a whim that he really started to think about it seriously.

"I've been working out for many decades," Van Buskirk said. "I've been interested in staying fit since I was 25, but competition is relatively new. I work out at Wells College and YMCA regularly. One day I looked at the weights and there was 310 pounds and I wondered if I could lift that and I did on the first try."

Rightly impressed by this accomplishment, Van Buskirk decided to compare his lift with others.

"I bought an issue of 'Powerlifter,'" Van Buskirk said. "I wondered how that compared and it did compare and was competitive, that's when I decided to do this and start training."

Aside from his regular workouts, when training, Van Buskirk sticks to a fairly rigid and intense schedule. It includes doing sets of reps with anywhere from 315 to 325 pounds, doing somewhere between seven and nine sets; he rests before doing it again before going for the max with 350 pounds and then dropping down below 300 and doing without counting what he simply says are many, many reps.

"I probably lift around 10,000 pounds in a workout," Van Buskirk said. "I do that routine once a week. Most people let 10 days elapse, but I just need to do it every week."

With such commitment and so many accomplishments it is little wonder the World Powerlifting Federation approached him about breaking his own national record to go for the world record at nationals in the dead lift with 350 pounds.

That's just the kind of challenge Van Buskirk is always up for.

"I really just compete to best myself," Van Buskirk said. "I put pressure on myself to do better and set goals to go after. The trophies are secondary. I make myself compete against myself."

At the competition, held last month, Van Buskirk said he breezed through the preliminary round lifting 315 with no problems before he went for the record.

" I did my opening lift and I felt strong enough to win," Van Buskirk said. "It was halfway up and I was ready to celebrate, I've done 350 right at the Y, I do it every workout, but I collapsed and the weight went rolling, it was scary."

In the process of trying to lift the weight, he tore his hamstring muscle, taking him out of the rest of the weekend's competition. It has changed the path of his future competitive events.

"I missed the big lift and that is a big disappointment," Van Buskirk said. "But I'm not all that unhappy. When I get better I don't think I'll try to do it, it would be in my mind to try, but that would be insane."

Van Buskirk says he is not retiring from lifting, whether it is competitively or in the gym; he would miss it too much, but there is one thing he won't miss.

"I am glad I won't be training as hard," Van Buskirk said. "It is gruesome."

But you can't keep a good athlete down.

Van Buskirk looks forward to future competition in the Empire State Senior Games, where he won the gold in shot put two straight years, and said weightlifting competitions are still on his agenda.

"I may still go to the worlds," Van Buskirk said. "I can still do the power curl, I'm not impaired from doing that. I haven't been doing the bench press, but I think I might start doing that. I definitely wouldn't call this retirement."