Dino Challenge Award Winners
by Al Myers
In the picture on the left, Al Myers (right) is presenting Chad Ullom (left) the Ambidextrous Award. In the picture on the right, Mike Murdock (left) is presenting Al Myers (right) the KLUTZ AWARD.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s meet report on the Dino Gym Challenge, a couple of BEST LIFTER AWARDS were presented. The unusual thing about these two awards were that they had no bearing on overall performance as most best lifters awards do, but rather to honor (or make fun of!) the two lifters that were the most balanced, and most unbalanced, between both arms in their lifts. As I said, I was very intrigued just to see how the lifters would do in pounds lifted between each arm in the same lift. Most of the time in All-Round meets when an one arm lift is contested, the lifter gets to chose which arm to use in competition, and often the other arm never gets any “meet action”.
The Best Lifter Award for the most balanced lifter was titled the Ambidextrous Award. It was based on a percentage of the weaker arm to the stronger arm in pounds lifted with both. Surprisingly, four of the five lifters in this meet went over 90%. The WINNER was also the winner of the Dino Gym Challenge, Chad Ullom. Chad had a rating of 96.2%. Only competition lifts were used in this calculation (not extra attempts for record). Even with this high percentage, Chad still had better lifts with his right arm in all five lifts, but his left was very close behind in each one.
| Lifter | Left Arm | Right Arm | Percent |
| Chad Ullom | 880 | 914 | 96.2% |
| Dave Glasgow | 650 | 615 | 94.6% |
| Rudy Bletscher | 315 | 335 | 94.0% |
| Dean Ross | 345 | 380 | 90.8% |
| Al Myers | 740 | 920 | 80.4% |
Now for the WINNER of the most unbalanced lifter, the Ambisinistrous Award……. it went to ME! And from the table above, no one else was even close to challenging me for this degrading award. I have to say I was slightly embarrassed when Mike finished his calculations and I seen that it was me who had won it! Before the meet I made this award up with someone else in mind – NOT ME! Most don’t know that recently “Super Dave” Glasgow has had surgery on his right elbow to repair a nerve issue. Dave’s not one to complain about ANYTHING, and most of the time doesn’t even mention to his family and friends when he is having major surgery. I was a little surprised he even entered this meet because his surgery hasn’t been that long ago and his right arm is far from recovered. So to say I thought he had the Ambisinistrous Award locked up beforehand was an “understatement”! Well, that like joke sure backfired on me! I even nicknamed the award beforehand “THE KLUTZ AWARD”, and had that stated on the certificate as well. I’m sure to never live this one down!