Author: iawa@metamorfit.co.uk

Paul Barette presented Thomas Meakin the Bert Spencer Trophy for 2025 on Saturday evening at the MetamorFIT IAWA Celebration.

The Bert Spencer Trophy is awarded to the highest amended score in the Spencer Set, which is comprised of the 2 Hands Dumbbell Press, 2 Hands Dumbbell Clean & Jerk, 2 Dumbbells swing.

• Thomas achieved 260.2 amended points with a 63kg Press, 58kg C&J, 43kg Swing in the 70+ 90kg Class
• Steve Andrews (2nd Place) 255.1 points
• Matt Johnson (3rd Place) 249.6 points

Steve Gardner’s Team Powerhouse received their awards recognising their performances for the IAWA(UK) Bob Smith All-Round Postal League in Tiverton on 15th February.

Chloe Brennan was awarded the ‘Britain’s Best All-Round Weightlifter Trophy’ for winning the league for 2025.

Powerhouse Phoenix Team 1 – Chloe Brennan, Matt Jones and Josh Davidson received their First Place Team Awards

Report from Steve Gardner:

What an awesome day at Tiverton today… thank you to Gary Ell and Mark Rattenberry for promoting this exciting double bill. Everybody lifted out of their skin on the platform in the Southern Cup and the Southern Grip competitions
There were lots of records broken and many ‘heaviest lift on the books moments’ too.
Kristin Nichols one of our disability lifters won his weight class and broke an open record too in one of the six lifts.
Gary Clarke our Disability Officer was on hand also to try out some of the new disability lifts, claiming records In the Hackenschmift Floor Press and the Seated Fulton Deadlift

The winner and top five in the Southern Cup:
1 Jamie Oates
2 Josh Davidson
3 Chloe Brennan
4 Matt Jones
5 Paul Hallam

The Winner and top five in the Southern Grip:
1 Chloe Brennan
2 Mark Rattenberry
3 Paul Hallam
4 Josh Davidson
5 Leo Moss

Overall Best Junior – Leo Moss
Overall Best Open – Chloe Brennan
Overall Best Master – Paul Hallam
Overall Best Devon Lifter – Mark Rattenberry
Overall Best Duck Walk – joint winners were Chloe Brennan with an amazing 142.7 kilos and Matt Jones with an incredible 200.2 Kilos

2026-Southern-Cup-Grip-15th-Feb-Tiverton

Congratulations to Kayleigh Lamb on passing the IAWA Referee Exam!

Kayleigh will now embark on her 12 month probationary period, gaining as much practical experience as possible at events throughout the year before official sign-off.

Well done Kayleigh!

Here are Leg 1 results of the Bob Smith All-Round Postal League for 2026!

Congratulations to the top 3 lifters:

Joshua Charles Davidson
James Gardner
Matt Jones

The top 3 teams were:

Powerhouse Phoenix1
Powerhouse Phoenix2
Bionic Branch Barbell Club – Club3B1

Thank you to Christopher Bass for compiling the results and confirming the records achieved!

Postal-League2026_1

At the IAWA(UK) AGM, it was proposed and agreed that 10 New Disability Lifts would be added to the exsiting list of disability lifts.

Currently, these new lifts are classed as Brtish Record status, until adopted worldwide.

The rule book has been updated with the new lifts, together with a clarification on the equipment specifications for the Saxon Deadlift.

The latest version of the Rule Book can be viewed here.

Leo Moss has been awarded the Health & Strength Junior Award for 2025.

The IAWA(UK) committee choose the deserving winner based on the lifters performances and their commitment to the sport of All-Round Weightlifting.

Leo was handed his award by Emily Haydock, last year’s winner.

Congratulations Leo!

The British Grip Championships took place on Saturday 10th January at Mark Haydock’s Gym on a cold January morning …

The competition was keen with some outstanding performances and many World Records were broken

Big thanks to Mark and Sam for hosting the day. With a few lifters unable to make it on the day, Chloe Brennan flew the flag for the ladies, Leo Moss for the Juniors and Gary Ell for the Masters

At the end of the competition the top three lifters ‘Overall’

1st place and Winner of the Karen Gardner Memorial Shield was Mark Haydock

2nd place was Josh Davidson

3rd place was James Gardner

2026-British-Grip-10th-Jan-Samlesbury

Emily Haydock presented the awards for the day….

Chris Bass (our IAWA Records Registrar) has reworked the the Blindt Coefficients, bringing them up to date to reflect the most recent records achieved.

These will be in use for the events that use the coefficients this year, including throughout the 2026 Bob Smith All-Round Postal League.

We thank Chris for his work in maintaining the list!

Blindt-List-2026

Our drug control officer Gary Ell is pleased to report that the recent test carried out at the IAWA Gold Cup has returned a negative result.

Thank you to Gary Ell and his assistants Josh Davidson and Sam Bonar for their work throughout the year!