Author Archives: Al Myers

World Championships

By Al Myers

2022 IAWA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

The group picture from the 2022 IAWA World Championships

The group picture from the 2022 IAWA World Championships

Once again Denny and Judy Habecker hosted a great World Championships in their hometown of Lebanon, PA. I believe this marks the SIXTH time the Habeckers have promoted Worlds – making them the ALL TIME leaders putting on the IAWA World Championships.

Like last year, the number of competitors were down in numbers.  I’m hoping this is still due to post COVID reasons, but it’s a little concerning.  However,  the lifting was superb and the meet was an overall success.  We dedicated this World Championships to Karen Gardner as she’s fighting health issues right now and could not attend.  Steve and Karen have always been a perennial presence at this meet, and I have to admit it seemed a little “off” not sharing the announcing table with Steve.

Beth Skwarecki from Pittsburgh was the lone women’s competitor but she represented well!! Her performance was worthy of being a champion.  She impressed me with several of her lifts and her technique is flawless.

Beth had a record breaking performance in the One Hand Deadlift with this 101 KG successful lift!

Beth had a record breaking performance in the One Hand Deadlift with this 101 KG successful lift!

Three lifters from England made the trip to the states to compete.  Steve Sherwood won the OVERALL BEST LIFTER title and AGAIN showed us that he is still the best in our sport.  I always enjoy watching Steve lift.  He’s a perfectionist with his lifting and a true gentleman off the platform.

Paul Barette and Danny Kingsland from the Metamorfit Gym in Eastbourne both had great meets.  This was the first time that Danny has traveled to the states to lift.  I want to REALLY thank Steve, Paul, and Danny for attending.

Young Aidan Habecker was the youngest lifter at 19, and his “gramps” Denny the oldest at 80.  However, Aidan is not the kid lifter he used to be as he’s a young man now, and he posted the highest total of the meet at 630 kilograms.  He was the last lifter on the platform when the meet was over as he nailed a 170 kg VB deadlift for record, which was a fitting way to end the meet.

I want to mention Frank Ciavattone.  Frank has dealt with ALOT lately but still competed and posted a mark in all the lifts.  Even though his One Hand Deadlift was a token lift for him at this meet, it still impressed me just getting to watch the legend in action with his signature lift.

Randy Smith made the road trip from Michigan to compete.  Randy was last year’s overall best lifter at Worlds but ended up second overall to Steve this year.  Outside of a few more grey hairs Randy still looks and lifts like he did 20 years ago.

Again, I want to thank Denny and Judy for all they did to make this another great championships for IAWA.

Meet Results:

2022 World IAWA World Championships
October 1st & 2nd, 2022
Lebanon, PA

Meet Director: Denny Habecker

Meet Announcer/Scorekeeper: Al Myers

Meet Officials (3-official system used): Denny Habecker, Barry Pensyl, Beth Skwarecki, Steve Sherwood, Paul Barette, Frank Ciavattone, Randy Smith

Meet Loaders:   All Lifters

Meet Lifts: DAY 1 Clean and Press, Continental Snatch, Cheat Curl, One Hand Deadlift  DAY 2 Continental Clean and Jerk, Pullover and Push, 2 2″ Vertical Bar Deadlift

WOMENS DIVISION

Lifter Age BWT C&P Sna Curl 1HDL C&J P&P VB TOT PTS
Beth Skwarecki 41 67.5 40 55 52.5 95R 70 85 96 492.5 537.8

EXTRA ATTEMPTS FOR RECORD

Beth S  Cheat Curl 56K
One Hand DL Right  101K

MENS DIVISION

Lifter Age BWT C&P Sna Curl 1HDL C&J P&P VB TOT PTS
Steve Sherwood 71 80.5 45 55.5 68 150L 55 75 140 588.5 777.7
Randy Smith 68 87.0 55 50 67.5 122.5R 67.5 92.5 140 595.0 718.6
Denny Habecker 80 83.1 42.5 35 42.5 92.5R 45 72.5 87.5 417.5 612.0
Aidan Habecker 19 83.0 50 60 67.5 125R 70 92.5 165 630.0 604.3
Paul Barette 46 74.8 50 52.5 65 120L 62.5 82.5 95 527.5 565.4
Danny Kingsland 32 64.8 65 45 60  0 60 97.5 105 432.5 476.0
Frank Ciavattone 67 130.0 20 20 40 90R 20 50 105 345.0 332.7
Al Myers 56 104.8  —  —  —  —  —  — 105 105.0 101.5

Notes: Steve Sherwood weighed in on Day 2 at 79.9 (80KG Class).  All other lifters weighed in at the same class as Day 1.

EXTRA ATTEMPTS FOR RECORD

Aidan Habecker Cheat Curl 68.5K
Aidan Habecker 2×2″ VB 170K

Notes: All lifts recorded in kilograms.  BWT is bodyweight recorded in kilograms.  R and L designate right and left. TOT is total kilograms lifted.  PTS are overall points adjusted for bodyweight and age corrections.

BEST LIFTER AWARDS

Womens Master 40-44: Beth Skwarecki
Womens Overall: Beth Skwarecki
Mens Junior: Aidan Habecker
Mens Senior:  Danny Kingsland
Mens Master 45-49: Paul Barette
Mens Master 55-59: Al Myers
Mens Master 65-69: Randy Smith
Mens Master 70-74: Steve Sherwood
Mens Master 80-84: Denny Habecker
Mens Overall: Steve Sherwood

World Postal Championships

By Al Myers, IAWA President

2022 IAWA World Postal Championships “The Andy Goddard Memorial” August 31st, 2022 Lifts: Clean and Press, Continental Snatch, Cheat Curl, 1H Deadlift MEET REPORT, BY PROMOTER AL MYERS Another great year for the IAWA World Postal Championships!! This year we had 44 lifters compete (up 2 from last year) from the United States, Australia, England, and Canada. This World Postal Championships is one of three (with the World Championships and the Gold Cup being the other two) promoted by IAWA. I want to REALLY thank all those that participated. Your participation is what makes this a great event! As per the tradition the past few years, the lifts of the first day Worlds were contested. I’ve included all class winners and best lifters, individual overall rankings for men and women, 3 person team rankings, and club rankings. I want to give special mention to the overall winners in each category. The Overall Best Men’s Lifter was ABE SMITH, and the Overall Best Women’s Lifter was BEATA BANAS. The Overall Best 3-person Team went to CLARK’S GYM (Abe Smith, Randy Smith, and Dave DeForest). The Overall Best Club went to METAMORFIT. The Overall Best Association went to the USAWA, with the IAWAUK in second, and the ARWF in third. The youngest lifter that entered Everett Todd at 9 years of age. The oldest lifter in the completion was Bill Clark at 90 years of age! The Clubs with the most lifters entered were KC Strongman and Metamorfit at 8 lifters each. I want to mention 5 lifters who competed as Exhibition Lifters (because of lack of an official to judge their lifts) just to show support to IAWA and the memory of Andy Goddard. These lifters were Gary Ell, Jason Farrugia, Chad Ullom and two lifters from Canada – Syvia Stockall and Sarah Douglas. If anyone notices any errors in these results please let me know as soon as possible so I can get things corrected. Sometimes I have difficulties reading the handwriting on the official scoresheets. Again, I want to thank everyone for entering this meet and making it an outstanding annual event in IAWA

MEET RESULTS (PDF): 2022 World Postal Results

 

IAWA World Postal

By Al Myers, IAWA President

MEET ANNOUNCEMENT

2022 IAWA WORLD POSTAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The IAWA World Postal Championships has been announced! It will still be the “Andy Goddard Memorial”.  Andy was a great friend and supporter of the IAWA and as long as I’m involved promoting the World Postal Championships it will be done in Andy’s memory. As it has been the past few years, the lifts for this World Postal will be the first day lifts of the upcoming Worlds. Read the the info sheet as it outlines the “rules of the competition”.  Send your results to me at amyers@usawa.com. Also, please send in the official entry form with your club results. If you have more club entries than on the entry form just include extra entry forms.

INFORMATION SHEET (PDF) – 2022 World Postal Information Sheet

ENTRY FORM (PDF) – 2022 World Postal Entry Form

2022 Award Nominations

by Al Myers

It’s that time of the year again to nominate deserving lifters for the yearly awards!  The USAWA award program was started in 2009 to honor those individuals that displays outstanding achievements throughout the year in different categories.  I have been the USAWA Awards Director that entire time and was the one who started the USAWA Awards Program.  Part of the USAWA budget goes to these awards, which means that part of your membership dues support this program. These awards are awarded at the Annual General Meeting of the USAWA, which occurs at the same time as the National Championships.  Usually the USAWA Awards are “yearly” – meaning they are for the previous year’s accomplishments. I would consider “yearly” as being the time since (and including) last years National Championships.    Now for a little “overview” of the rules for nominations:

  • You  must be a USAWA member to make a nomination or cast a vote
  • Nominated individuals must be a USAWA members to be eligible
  • Only one individual may be nominated per person per award
  • Two nominations for each award may be submitted, one for your choice of the Winner and one for your choice of the runner-up.
  • The awards are for the accomplishments since last June
  • An individual may be nominated for more than one award

These are the different awards for which you should chose your nominations for:

 Athlete of the Year – This award is for the individual who has accomplished the most athletically within the last year in the USAWA. Top placings at the Nationals and World Championships should figure in high. Also, participation in other Championship  Competitions such as the Heavy Lift Championships, the Grip Championships, the Club Championships, the OTSM Championships, the Team Championships, or the National Postal Championships could factor in.  Participation in elite IAWA events such as the Gold Cup should make an influence on earning this award as well.

Leadership Award – This is for an individual that has shown exceptional leadership qualities within the USAWA during the past year. Things that should be looked at are: going above the level expected of an Officer position, promoting sanctioned events with emphasis being on promoting National or World Competitions, promoting the USAWA by developing a strong club, writing articles for publications about the USAWA, or through other means.

Sportsmanship Award – This goes to an individual who possesses and shows great sportsmanship within the USAWA. The act of sportsmanship may be by conduct at all events, or by an specific example of exceptional sportsmanship.

Courage Award – This goes to an individual who shows the courage to overcome an obstacle in order to return to competition. This may be a comeback from an injury, or just having to deal with difficult personal issues but still shows the courage to compete in the USAWA.

Newcomer Award– This award goes to an individual who in new to the USAWA or has become involved again. It doesn’t have to go to someone in their first year of being involved in the USAWA.

As stated earlier in the rules, I would like you to submit your choice for the WINNER and your choice for the RUNNER UP for each award.  I will score it this way:  for each nomination per award I will give 2 points for the nominated winner and 1 point for the nominated runner up.  I will then add up all the points from all nominations with the person receiving the most points declared the winner and the one with the second most points the runner up.  So you can see that the Award Winners are chosen by YOU THE MEMBERSHIP!   That’s the way it should be done.

Please email me at amyers@usawa.com with your nominations.  The deadline for nominations is May 10th.  That’s giving everyone a couple of weeks to make their decisions.  My experience with this is that if a person does not make their nominations shortly after reading this announcement, it never gets done.  So make it easy on yourself  (and me!) and turn your nominations in today!!!!

Grip Championships

By Al Myers

2022 USAWA GRIP CHAMPIONSHIPS

Group picture from the 2022 USAWA Grip Championships

Group picture from the 2022 USAWA Grip Championships

The Dino Gym hosted the USAWA Grip Championships for the 11th time this past weekend.  Usually this championship event gets a good turnout, but this year only three lifters took part.  However it was a heated contest as all participants have been past overall champions of the Grip Championships.

LaVerne Myers took the overall over fellow Dino Gym members Chad Ulllom and myself.  This makes LaVerne a FIVE TIME overall winner of the Grip Championships making him the most overall winner of all past Grip Championships.

I really want to thank Dave Glasgow for coming to the Dino Gym to officiate, which allowed me to compete in the meet.

Meet Results:

USAWA Grip Championships
February 19th, 2022
Dino Gym
Holland, KS

Meet Director: LaVerne Myers

Meet Scorekeeper: Al Myers

Official (1-official system used): Dave Glasgow

Lifts: Dumbbell Walk, Deadlift – 2 Inch Dumbbells, Deadlift – No Thumbs One Arm, Deadlift – Index Fingers

MENS DIVISION

Lifter Age BWT Walk Inch DLNT Index TOT PTS
LaVerne Myers 77 218 113* 240* 171L* 143* 667 851.7
Al Myers 55 230 113* 260* 204R* 198* 775 744.8
Chad Ullom 50 233 93* 260* 193R* 220* 766 699.5

Notes: BWT is bodyweight in pounds. All lifts recorded in pounds. R and L designate right and left arms. TOT is total pounds lifted. PTS are overall adjusted points corrected for age and bodyweight. National records within the meet are denoted with an asterisk (*).

RECORD DAY LIFTS

Officials (3-official system used): LaVerne Myers, Al Myers, Chad Ullom

LaVerne Myers – Age 77 years, BWT 222 pounds
Finger Lift – Left Little: 58#
Finger Lift – Right Little: 58#
Finger Lift – Left Thumb: 58#
Finger Lift – Right Thumb: 58#
Deadlift – Fulton Bar, Left Arm: 160#

Al Myers – Age 55 years, BWT 229 pounds
Finger Lift – Right Little: 88#
Finger Lift – Right Ring: 118#
Finger Lift – Right Index: 128#
Finger Lift – Right Middle: 143#
Finger Lift – Right Thumb: 83#

Chad Ullom – Age 50 years, BWT 235 pounds
Deadlift – Stiff Legged: 364#
Deadlift – Ciavattone Grip: 402#
Finger Lift – Left Ring: 118#
Finger Lift – Left Index: 118#

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