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We Want Our Medals!
Submitted by Staff on November 17, 2009 - 9:12am.
IDPFA members, led by Worlds competitor Ben Loughrey and former WDFPF Vice President Anita Mahony, have launched an attack on World meet organizers Neil Abery and Rick Meldon for not handing out medals to finishers in each age grouping at the Championships. By all accounts, the meet was very well run save for the medals. However, Loughery says that lifters from around the world are angry with the organizer's decision. Mahony even claims that she resigned from her position in the federation due to the issue.
Loughrey at the IDFPA forum:
All of the lifters I have spoken to feel the same as I do about this.
We all paid a £70 entry fee. A lot to pay, I thought and personally, I expected something good in return.
Rick Meldon and Neil Abery decided that there would be no medals or trophies for age groups and that each weight class would have only three medals. How do they expect a 15 year old to compete with, for example, a 30 year old with 10+ years of training behind them? Instead they opted for the cheap option of handing out pitiful certificates, that in some cases weren't even filled in. On the Saturday night a pile of these very expensive certificates that hadn't been collected were dumped in the hotel foyer. Obviously they weren't that costly. Rick also took it upon himself to make a point of saying that the younger lifters who had in fact topped their age groups weren't winners.
Spectators were charged £5 entry fees and t-shirts were being sold at £9. The list of sponsors included Seat, Worcester Bosch Group, David Lloyd, Howdens Joinery, ALR Property Maintenance, Treelife, TerryHardyPhoto, Body Limits, Richard Coveney Motor Services, Ultimate Print & Design and Pullum Sports. With so many sponsors and fees, where the hell did all the money go?
To top it all off, after some people complained to Rick about the situation he told a few of the Irish lifters, that "If you don't like it, you can **** off to another association."
From what I can see, Rick Meldon and Neil Abery have walked away with their pockets full after cashing in on us spending our hard earned money on entering their competition. Maybe they want to buy themselves some manners? They have made a joke out of the WDFPF and I think that something must be done to prevent this from happening in future. I am definitely going to reconsider ever competing outside of Ireland in the WDFPF again.
I will at least finish on a good note. Thanks to the officials and in particular the spotters and loaders who were exceptional. Some of the lifting at the weekend was incredible and it's just a pity that none of the lifters got the respect they deserved
Abery responds: "any other sport in the world does not reward people for just turning up you earn your reward for coming top 3. it was not a junior champs or a masters champs and as for your moronic "£5 medal" comment they cost £30 each and anyone wanting to show their mates that they won a cheap title I can supply them at cost price and then we can all be champions that would be great and nobody would have to aspire to achieve anything. this is not sports day at school!!! It was the world powerlifting championships not the junior or masters championships and if your open and came out of the top 3 train harder get better and next year hope to win... the idea was that the certs state that you are a junior/ master champion or whatever place in the open and that the class got gold silver and bronze."
Abery comments on the assertions that they made a boatload of money on the event: "One point to consider in the costs of the event was the excellent loaders and spotters, we paid each of them a fee and also put them up in the Hilton for two nights as well.12 spotters x 2 days!!! That is just one cost out of loads.If you feel that you need to know what our costs were we will print a full list of accounts when we receive our final bill from the Hilton, which includes lunch for all referees both days, including Thomas Coyle, infact we treated Thomas to dinner the first night he was here. Shame you only mention money issues and couldn't even have the grace to mention the world class venue and equippment, which also come at a considerable cost.Anita, you weren't even here which was fine by us as we specifically made it clear to our admin helpers that we did not want your sub standard help. as for pockets full of cash, if anything at all was made it was on door entries and t-shirts, remember that we, the organisers also paid for the drug testing in full... please explain how I can afford to award such a high quality medal to everyone? the figures just do not add up with testing venue fees etc.... I ask you all this.....was the venue fantastic? was the stage platform and weights area fantastic?"
Mahony: "I will be speaking to Thomas Coyle who was at the event and i feel it may well be appropriate for the IDFPA to lodge a letter of complaint to the Organisers of the event, the BDFPA and the WDFPF. It is such a shame that the IDFPA are doing such a good job at home and then the IDPFA lifters are being put off lifting with the federation because of what goes on at International Events that is totally out of our control."
Mahony continues: "The WDFPF do not yet hold separate championships for different age categories. Thus this event was not just an Open Championships and if the organisers decided this is what they wanted to run, they should have indicated this to the Executive when making their bid for the event, highlighted it on the entry form and returned the entry fees of the teenage, junior and master lifters that I, and every other nation entered under what we are now told, was false pretences. Im looking forward to seeing the results to see just how many lifters were actually Open lifters rather than those entered by their federations in their relevant age categories as stated on the form. Perhaps now, as the competition was advertised on false pretenses, the organisers should return the entry fees, travel & accommodation costs of those entered in an event that did not cater for them."
ADFPF Competition Chair Mike Stagg "Having run the World's last year, I can attest to the hard work and expense that goes into these events. And you can't make everyone happy. I doubt they made TOO MUCH money as I'm sure these were custom cast medals. Any of you engineer types could likely guess at the cost for a custom cast and small volume of medals....
Now having said that...I see everyone's frustration. However, the band (that most did not go see)was simply outstanding and that was a nice touch. At the end of the day...everyone here was already a champion and probably has a closet full of awards. I think the teens and some Master lifters kind of felt disrespected which is understandable. However, let's (all countries) work to improve our organization by getting involved. I think the IDFPA has an outstanding leader in Tom Coyle and he is now on the technical committee for the WDFPF. I really look forward to the meet next year and HOPE to see all my good friends there that I have made over the past several years. "
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