USAWA

By Al Myers

Group picture from the 2016 IAWA Gold Cup in Abilene, KS.

I was honored to be able to promote the IAWA Gold Cup this year.  The Gold Cup has had a prestigious past, with many great meet promoters putting on top notch shows. These past promotors set the bar high for me!  I felt everything went very well.  There was lots of great lifting and many new IAWA World Records set.  Right now I feel a sense of relief that the meet is over and it was a success!

We had one Junior Lifter, my daughter Molly Myers.  Molly started the event with a tremendous back squat of 110 KGS.  She did this lift without knee wraps and a belt (she forgot her belt!). One thing that makes the Gold Cup very special is that it is a true World event every year.  Peter Phillips made the trip from Perth, Australia to do a 155KG Thumbless Grip Deadlift. Timo Lauttamus represented Finland and performed an amazing 100KG Little Finger Hacklift. Steve Gardner from England started the meet off with a 80KG Middle Fingers Straddle. Karen Gardner from England continues to show her many all round lifting skills by lifting 32.5KG in the Hands Together Bench Press.  George Dick from Scotland always keeps the crowd entertained, and in the process set a new World Record with a 45KG Dumbbell & Barbell Anyhow. A couple of other lifters that really stood out included Eric Todd with a 60KG Lying Lateral Raise and 89 year old Art Montini with a 80 KG Deadlift.

Timo Lauttamus and his outstanding Little Fingers Deadlift of 100 KG.

For the past several years an outstanding Best Lifter of the Gold Cup has been awarded. The award is named the Howard Prechtel Memorial Award, in honor of Howard Prechtel for starting the Gold Cup many years ago. This year’s winner was Timo Lauttamus with his outstanding Little Fingers Hack. Second Place went to LaVerne Myers, and third place went to Peter Phillips.

Winner of the Howard Prechtel Award was Timo Lauttamus (center). Peter Phillips from Australia was third (left) and LaVerne Myers was second (right).

I have many people who I need to thank for helping me throughout the weekend.  First up is my dad LaVerne. He served as co-promoter for the Gold Cup and really helped coordinating the meet venue and hosting several lifters at his home. My wife Leslie catered the meal herself, and did an excellent job. I may be biased but I felt the banquet meal was one of the best ever!  I especially want to thank the crew that helped with loading and setup – Brad Wehling, Jason Lahr, and Kyle Jones. I couldn’t believe we did the meet set up in only an hour. Steve Gardner was brilliant on the microphone all day as well as doing all the scorekeeping. My buddies Chad and Thom helped so much as well.   Lastly, I can’t say enough about all the help I got from Peter Phillips. Peter was spending the week with me and I put him to work! Peter helped me get all the equipment ready and loaded the day before, helped with set up and tear down, officiated all day, and then helped me unload everything once I got it back home. He was my right-hand man! I especially want to thank all the lifters that took part in this event.

This day was a great day in the history of the IAWA.

Meet Results:

2016 IAWA Gold Cup
Abilene Civic Center
Abilene, KS, USA
October 22nd, 2016

Meet Promoters: Al Myers and LaVerne Myers

Announcer and Scorekeeper: Steve Gardner

Officials (3-official system used): George Dick, Peter Phillips, Denny Habecker, Dennis Mitchell, Chad Ullom, LaVerne Myers, Al Myers, Thom Van Vleck

Loaders: Chad Ullom, Al Myers, Jason Lahr, Dean Ross, Molly Myers

Results (PDF) – iawa-gold-cup