Open Back Shirts Defeated at GPC AGM

Submitted by Staff on October 13, 2008 - 7:02am.

The GPC has published the results from its annual meeting which was held September 9 in conjunction with the World Championships in Warwickshire, England. Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Slovakia, and the U.S. were in attendance.

In voting on new business, a proposal to allow open back shirts was once again defeated. Also defeated were proposals to use the start command on the bench press and change masters divisions from five to ten year spans.

An interesting proposal by Czech Republic President Dan Dvorák to bring about cooperation between the GPC and the WPC and WUAP federations was "cancelled". Dvorák's proposal called for a time frame of four weeks between each of the federations European and World championships to eliminate scheduling conflicts. He cited "ambition of higher concern of lifters and not fragment on prestige championships as Worlds and Euros." Dvorák also proposed a unified Championships for the three federations, where the top three lifters from each category at GPC Worlds, WPC Worlds, and WUAP Worlds would take part.

Proposals that passed included the elimination of records set prior to 2003. Those records currently include WPC records.

In addition, the federation passed a measure to only review and change Technical Rules and By-Laws every two years. The measure was initially proposed as being every four years but was changed to two at the meeting. The reason cited: "A rulebook could be printed every 4 years so all federations would have current rules that would be stable for 4 years."

The Czech Republic was awarded the 2010 World Championships which will be held in Prague.

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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 13, 2008 - 1:01pm. » quote

To bad about having to use a closed back shirt. I know they would get more lifters if they changed this. I wont be doing any D2 contests because of this, dont want to buy new gear.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 13, 2008 - 4:40pm. » quote

Good for them limiting gear, this is what will make them more popular and many feel it is out of control, and those used to open back shirts are also used to loose judging so they would be unhappy in the GPC anyway. I doubt the GPc wants those lifters they are happy with the lifters who want strict rules of proformance. This makes them more creadible in my opinion then feds like the WPC.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 13, 2008 - 5:01pm. » quote

what is a d2 contest?

Submitted by Courtney Stanley on October 13, 2008 - 8:03pm. » quote

Anonymous wrote:

what is a d2 contest?

D2 refers to USPF Division II . USPF Division II US National Champions are eligible to compete for the GPC World Championship.

Courtney Stanley
GPC United States Secretary
USPF Executive Committee
WPF World Secretary

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 13, 2008 - 8:10pm. » quote

Anonymous wrote:

To bad about having to use a closed back shirt. I know they would get more lifters if they changed this. I wont be doing any D2 contests because of this, dont want to buy new gear.

so don't. you problem would not like the fact you have to pause it and lock it out either.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 14, 2008 - 4:56am. » quote

A good move by the GPC the shirt situation is getting out of control there has to be some rules and guidlines to make it credible.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 14, 2008 - 11:07pm. » quote

I have done both gpc and wpc meets. Ive never noticed a difference in judging at all, just a little different in the bench shirt rules.

For my gpc shirt ive had to get fully custom made so I can ride the front of the shirt as low as I like. Took quite a bit of work to get my closed back rage-x to function like my open backed. I even got a different material in the back that makes it easier to get my shoulderblades together.

In the end it doesn't matter much to me about the shirt rule, its just an expensive pain in the ass to get the modifications that i want done and I know many lifters have thought the same thing. It takes about 20-30 minutes to get in my bench shirt with 2 helpers, my openback (the same shirt, i hit the same numbers in, just switch on the day of the contest usually) I can get on in about a minute with minimal help.

I am all for strict judging, but the only thing this rule changes for me is $200 more for my shirt and 30 minutes frustration on meet day.

Submitted by Bill Newman (not verified) on October 15, 2008 - 9:43am. » quote

I'm probably just gonna wear my single ply Katana when I do D2 meets anyways.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 15, 2008 - 11:59am. » quote

Anonymous wrote:

The stupid part is that they wont allow open back double ply shirts, but they will allow 2 ply powerpants under a 2 ply canvas, squatting out of a monolift. That is 4 plies of gear and no walkout compared to 2 plies open back.

No, they arent limiting gear, just the benchpress.
this is more stupid than the ipfs butt rule.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 15, 2008 - 12:01pm. » quote

if they want to limit something, limit the squat suits to 2 plies.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on October 17, 2008 - 11:11am. » quote

If you think there is no diference in the judging between the GPC and WPC then all you have to do is watch most of the bench videos done at their meets on here. you will see many not conforming to their own rules.