Everyone
After a few years of running the Raw division in a simplified Open division format, the number of raw lifters are speaking volumes to us. Due to the majority of our lifters being Raw lifters , USA Powerlifting of Missouri will make a couple changes in the way divisions are awarded.
For the Raw powerlifting divisions, we will now offer Open, Masters and Teenage, similar to how the geaed powerlifting division has been awarded. For those who still want deep competition, I urge you to consider lifting in the Open Raw division. There is no greater thrill than knowing you actually have competition, no matter where you place.
For the geared powerlifting divisions we are also going to make some changes. For those who choose to use gear, we will offer an Open division. In cases where we have classes that are really deep, we might award these out to the top 5 places, as we did with the open Raw division this year at the Missouir State Championships. It becomes more and more tedious as divisions are added to keep track of every single division and by offering just an Open geared powerlifting division, it may alleviate some of that.
Since the entry forms for the Illinois State are already printed, we'll probably keep it as the Missouri State vent was ran, with an Open Raw division and move forward from there. I appreciate the feedback from a few of you who I talked with on this. We're hear to offer a great product to the lifters and like everything else in the world, we can always change things up to see how it works.
Rick Fowler
Missouri State Chairman