Sunday, July 11th, 2010
Upcoming Meets Posted
The dates for two upcoming meets within Alberta have been posted. The MHPLO shall be hosted by Tyler Pocsik and I on Monday, August 2nd(long weekend), and the Edmonton Power Surge hosted by the UAPA shall occur on October 30th, 2010. I will surely try to make it up north for the latter, work permitting.
I have finished the meet directors information page here on the website for anyone looking for some advice for hosting a meet and I am slowly working on the clubs page. If anyone has any interest of getting their club put up on the website, shoot me an E-mail and I can tell you what I need from you.
Finally, the APU is proud to announce it's first corporate sponsorship deal! The only problem is I cannot tell you who until the said sponsor it content with their website and whatnot, so keep an eye on the website for all the up to date information.\
- Kain Lyon
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Post Provincials Update
The 2010 APU provincials have come and gone and the consensus is that it was a great success. The weather held out and it was a perfect temperature for the competition. The majority of the competitors were juniors and most of those were brand new lifters! We truly hope to see many of these new lifters stick with the sport and compete within the APU again. Also, it was great to see some national records attempted and some even broken. Thanks to all national level referees who were around to allow such attempts to occur.
Just an update for all members who did not attend the PAGM, there have been a few changes made to the procedure to host an APU sanctioned meet. Those details shall be going up on the meet directors information page and of course I am always available to answer any questions you might have. Also, look for some information in the future about some potential sponsorships that will occur for the APU.
The biggest change for the members of the APU is the qualification for the CPU nationals. The current rule of competing or assisting in the hosting of the APU provincials, or competing at the Western Canadian Championships has been changed. Lifters may only qualify for Nationals through a Western Canadian Championships if the said competition takes place in Alberta. I hope that explanation was clear but if there is any confusion please consult the APU constitution.
I am going to begin constructing our list of clubs within the APU so stay tuned for that. Later on in the year we can look forward to some small events that will be hosted by the clubs around the province. Namely the Medicine Hat Powerlifting Open, hosted by both myself and Tyler Pocsik in late July, and a meet in autumn hosted by the UAPA. Both events shall be small and limited to a low amount of competitors but that doesn't mean you can't get out to them and be involved.
Finally, just to touch on a previous point about PL clubs within Alberta that wish to offically register with the APU, send me an E-mail and I will give you the details.
Thanks again to everyone who assisted in the hosting of the meet,
- Kain Lyon
Saturday June 5th, 2010
One Week to Go!
It is currently one week away from the 2010 APU provincial championships and going by the amount of entries, it is going to be quite the meet. We have twenty-nine 3-lifters and over thirteen Bench Press Only competitors registered. This makes it the largest meet that I have ever hosted!
I have sent an E-mail out to everyone but I will post it here as well, due to the volume of entries, the weigh-in has been moved to 8:30 am on June 12th. This should us allow to run through the competition and be done by 5pm.
I have a ton of issues and proposals to run through at the PAGM this year, so if everyone could be punctual that would greatly reduced the chance of us being there all night.
Finally, because the excitement gets the best of me, and because a lot of competitors have been asking why I was asking for singlet sizes for this years meet, I have decided to try out a new best lifter prize. It will only be awarded to the best male and female three-lifter from Alberta at this years provincials. And if enough people think it is a good idea, we can keep going with it in the years to come. So here is a preview of the APU provincials Best Lifter Singlet:
See you all at provincials!
Sunday May 30th, 2010
Provincials Update
May 28th, the deadline for entry in the 2010 provincial championships, has come and gone. Currently, I am sitting at over twenty 3-lift entries and approximately half of that in Bench Press Only entries, making this largest meet I have ever hosted. Considering that there are a few more entries in the mail coming to me, I am excited to see what the final number will come out to.
Because of the volume of entries, I am currently considering moving the weigh-in forward a couple hours to ensure adequate time is allowed for the competition. I will know later this week if I am going to do this, I will be sure to have emails sent out to each competitor with the necessary information.
The only thing left to do is for me to hammer down who will be refereeing at this years event. Of course three national level referees will be on hand for national record attempts(at this year's national AGM, it was voted that we now need three instead of two national level referees for record attempts).
The meet T-shirts are finished, I will be going with a very simple logo for these ones, but color coated shirts for lifters, volunteers and guest lifters being blue, red and yellow respectively. A preview of the logo:
That is all I have for you for now, the only left is that I would like to give a congratulations to Alberta's own Avi Silverberg, who this last week competed at the IPF World Bench Press Championships in Killeen, Texas, USA and was able to achieve a Bronze medal. Congratulations to Avi and the rest of Team Canada.
Sunday May 16th, 2010
Hotels for APU Provincials
I have had a few lifters asking me to recommend a hotel for their stay in Medicine Hat during provincials. I can only think of two that I would suggest for different reasons.
Comfort Inn & Suites - Recommended purely because of meets I have held in the past where the Unparallelled Crew was down to help, and this is their hotel of choice so it must be alright.
Super 8 Medicine Hat - Recommended because of it's proximity to the meet venue. It is nice as well.
More to come!
-Kain Lyon
Sunday May 9th, 2010
The APU, working hard for you!
It has been a little over a month since the conclusion of the CPU national championships in Quebec City, Quebec and I would say that a good showing was made by all Alberta lifters. One lifter that could not be overlooked for mention would be Alex Mardell, who continues to shatter records and expectations within Canadian powerlifting.
Alberta's own Alex Mardell broke his own massive total record, finishing the meet with a whopping 1002.5kg.
Of course there are other performances worthy of mention, and while I would like very much to mention each and every lifter, time and space precludes me from doing so. Instead I would like to put up a picture that may be one of my favorite from nationals:
Alberta's own James Bartlett demonstrates fierce intensity during a squat.
Of course I have to show off my own performance!
It is now time for those of us in the APU to turn our focus to the APU Provincial Championships being held once again this year in Medicine Hat, AB on June 12th. This shall be a unique meet to say the least as it is the first time I shall be attempting to host a powerlifting meet outdoors in Medicine Hat's beautiful Kin Coulee park.
I would like to just give some food for thought to those thinking of competing. It is going to most likely be very hot out and shade could be very sparse. It might be good for all those competing to bring adequate water and anything else you might need to beat the heat during the meet. We are going to run the meet later than usual to allow for set-up that morning, so weigh-in shall begin at 10:30am, which means lifting shall be begin at 12:30 in the Bandstand. But I will cover the details of provincials at a later date.
I am putting a ton of effort into the APU right now, and it is amazing how much you can take on without realizing it. Everyone can expect big things at the PAGM as I am hoping we as an organization can make great progress this year and in the coming years.
- Kain Lyon
Wednesday April 21st, 2010
The Alberta Powerlifting Union has launched a new website!
