USAWA

The weekend of 28 – 29 June 2025 saw the return of an old event. Looking back in the Record Books, the No Weight Dozen ran for two years in 1999 and 2000. Earlier this year, at Clark’s Gym we decided to bring it back to life. The idea was to choose lifts that are challenging, yet something most folks can perform. With the input from several folks a list of 10 events was drawn up from those that had only a few records over 100 lbs – and the meet sanctioned. 

In spite of temperatures in the upper 80s and dewpoints around 75 F (31 C and 24 C for those north of the border) in Columbia of course, the turnout was fantastic. We had 20 lifters from four gyms and two nations compete. Two people emerged as the champions of a challenging two days – on the women’s side, Lisa Gore from Clark’s Gym was the champion. On the men’s side, Tony Hose from Clark’s Gym edged fellow teammate Jeff Wenzel to take the title. 

Thank you to all who participated. The response was far greater than I imagined. The weights may have been light, but there was a ton of fun and camaraderie. The results below showed that there was a lot of good lifting that took place from good lifters – including two lifters who will be inducted into this year’s Hall of Fame. As we look down the road for the future, it is my hope to swap in some different lifts and take out a few that were a bit more challenging to keep the list fresh. Additionally, we’ll look for a date that is further away from other meets. Lastly, given the great response, we’ll keep track of team performances if we get enough lifters from various gyms and compare common lifts. In fact – there are a myriad of stats we can produce. Just ask!

Any suggestions for next year’s event will be welcome. 

Results are below.