Gardner wins Prechtel Trophy!
by Al Myers
James Gardner wins the Prechtel Trophy as the BEST LIFTER of the 2012 IAWA Gold Cup.
For the first time ever, an award was given at the IAWA Gold Cup to represent the event’s BEST LIFTER. This award is given in remembrance of the late Howard Prechtel, who served three terms as the IAWA President. The concept of the Gold Cup was Howard’s idea – and the Gold Cup has indeed blossomed into one of the major IAWA events. This award will from now on become an annual award, and appropriately called the Howard Prechtel Memorial Trophy.
This year’s winner goes to JAMES GARDNER of England, having performed an outstanding World Record Turkish Get Up of 75 kilograms. James is more than deserving of this award, and showed unbelievable tenacity to even be there competing. James showed up late, as he was suffering from the intestinal flu the night before, and looked like he was not going to be able to do anything, let alone a big lift like he did! Congrats James – you earned it!
The rankings were done by using the Blindt Formula. This formula multiplies a Blindt Factor against total adjusted points to put all lifts on a “level playing field”. Each lift is assigned a different factor, depending on the lift. The top placements using this formula were:
1. James Gardner – 75 KG Turkish Get Up
2. Steve Sherwood – 125 KG Lunge Squat
3. Luke Davis – 50 KG Turkish Get Up
4. Timo Lauttemaus – 127.5 KG Index Fingers Deadlift
5. Gary Ell – 185 KG 2″ Bar Hacklift