Jim Hart, USAPL Records Chair
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FOR THE RECORD
Earlier this year I took over managing the American and National Meet Records for USA Powerlifting.
Let me start this off by explaining the difference between the two sets of records.
The National Meet Records are just what the title states, they are Meet Records for that specific USA Powerlifting National Champiuonships and can only be broken at THAT National Championships. In other words, you cannot break National Teenage Meet Records at the USA Powerlifting High School Nationals. Unfortuntely they are sometimes referred to as just National records, and this has sometimes lead to confusion between "National" and "American" records.
American Records may be broken at any contest if all requirements are met. One of these requirements is to have 3 National or International Referees present who are current in their referee status and their USA Powerlifting card. An "American Record Application" must be prepared, signed and submitted to the National Office within 30 days of the contest. With that application you must submit a copy of your birth certificate (if an age group record, a copy of the sanction, a copy of the meet results, and a copy of the scale certification. All scales must be certified with 1 year of the record attempt. A copy of the sticker on the scale will be sufficient as long as it is dated. "Certified 2003/2004" will not be sufficient.
One of the changes that is ongoing is the conversion of all National Meet Records and American Records to the official language, kilograms. There will still be a listing in pounds, but this will be for informational purposes only. As I post new records I will make this change to the records broken. Eventually I will go back and convert all records to kilograms. If a contest is held using pound weights and an American Record is broken I will convert the record to kilograms, dividing the weight lifted by 2.2046 and then rounding it down to the nearest tenth of a kilogram.
At the recent National Governing Body meeting, after some discussion with various lifters, coaches and referees around the nation I submitted the following agenda items and all were accepted. Note I will not attempt to quote these word for word, just explain what was approved.
At all National Meets there will no longer be a requirement for a lifter breaking an American Record to complete an "American Record Application" to get credit for a record broken. But they must present themselves to the Technical Secretary and/or Drug Testing Control Officer and notify them that they broke an American Record. All Open Records MUST be tested. For all age group records it will be up to the Technical Secretary and/or Drug Testing Control Officer whether the lifter is tested. You must still make sure the National Office has a copy of your birth certificate.
Also, at all National meets National Meet Records my be broken by .5 kgs. The previous rule stated 2.5 kgs. In the past a lifter could have attempted an American Record, got it, but if the lift was not 2.5 kg over the National Meet Record, they would not get credit for the National Meet Record. There were cases where the record weight was the same for the American Record and the National Meet Record, and the lifter would get the American Record, but not the National Meet Record.
The 145 kgs/319 lb class records were retired. Once all are completely updated they will be removed from the current records. For a period of 1 to 2 years they will be listed on a "retired" page. The records will also be combined with the 145+/319+ records and become the 125+/275+ records.
I apologize for the delay in getting the records current and keeping them current, but with this additional responsibility I have had to make some adjustments to my schedule and activities. We have also had to work out procedures for getting the record applications from the National Office to here. It should be noted here that ALL original record applications will be filed at the National Office and I will have photo copies. Applications may be turned in to me a and I will make myself a copy and for the original on to the National Office. I am also in the process of updating my computer hardware, software and internet services to help expedite everything.
As the new year approaches you can be guaranteed that updates willl become much more frequent.
I am also working to scan the hundreds of birth certificates on file and place them on a disk so if some breaks a record over and over again they do not have to send the same birth certificate in with every application.
If anyone has any questions about the records, please feel free to email me at jmshrt@aol.com and I will respond. If I don't have the answer you want right away, I will respond and let you know that I am working on it. So if you don't hear back, email me again as I might not have got the original email.
On a final note I would like to mention that any lifter that breaks an age group American Record at an international meet will get credit for their record provided that we have a copy of their birth certificate on file. AND it helps if they email me to make sure I see that they broke a record. After the recent Junior Worlds 2 coaches emailed me to let me know that their lifters broke records and for which age groups. I truly appreciated their efforts.
May God Bless you all.
JIM HART
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