PA are a disgrace

You make great points about the website. It is far better than the CAPO one, and one of the reasons my wife stopped competing after the 2007 Nationals was the lack of recognition for the lifters.

In fact, you still cant find her results anywhere, like they never happened.

CAPO was dying and decided to bring in RAW lifting. Its a brilliant decision, and one that Minh tells me Robert will never agree with, he doesnt want raw, period.

The reason I choose raw, is that I dont like equipped, its a personal thing.

Pa is more organized, more structured, has 20 more liffters compete at its Nats in 2009, but I really dont like the attitude of banning 2 friends because they lifted in my garage, that is an absolute disgrace.

So with my clients looking for somewhere to lift, CAPO was the only option. In Victoria, we will have over 40 lifters at out State Titles, thats double what PA had last States, so for the same reason you chose PA, competition, we chose CAPO.

Oddly we both chose our federations for the same reason, but different federations.

I also have some history with CAPO, as Adam Coe, Barry Murray, Len Wilson and a host of others introduced me to powerlifting, and I'm still mates with Adam.

So now that I have identified the 2 lifters, explained that it was a PA member, and named him, who told me about drugs at the Worlds, am I still a liar?

Either way, its great to have another competing powerlifter on the site, I hope you stay and make this site better.

Cheers

Markos

ps I still have the emails from Simon and Ray, but I wont post them, as Robert will probably have them arrested. I'm shocked that Minh is still allowed to deal with me lol

And for the record, to show I wont be bulleyed by any side, CAPO told me not to deal with Minh, who is a friend, and I told them to get stuffed. All my lifters will be wearing singlets, socks and slippers provided by an employee of Robert Wilks lol

"So why compete at PA if you KNOW that its strongest lifters are juiced? "

This statement to me is saying that you are accusing PA lifters of juicing.
Yes I realise that other countries in the IPF may treat drug testing a bit more leniently than Australia, and possibly just clean their lifters up for worlds. But I don't believe all the Eastern Europeans are on the gear, and to use that as an excuse is to take away from those lifters who compete at IPF world level and manage to win being clean.
Brad Gillingham from the USA, and Oceania's best lifter Derek Pomana ( 3 times world champ ) are good examples.

I wouldn't be surprised if Simon and Ray have been told not to compete in your comps anymore, but do you think that could be because of the CAPO and anti-PA posts you have been posting on the web?
The PA regulations only specifically disallow competing in other "powerlifting organisations", and specifically powerlifting organisations with a drug testing policy that is NOT substantially similar to PA's.
I can't post the link but check the PA website for regulations, 1.3 and 2.1 are the relevant sections.
Your gym comps have always sounded interesting, and the video footage on youtube they seem like great fun.
As they are a gym comp, not affiliated to a powerlifting organisation, and with extra lifts I can't see the problem. But if you're seen as someone that's actively spreading hate about PA, maybe that's why Ray and Simon are now having issues?

I compete in Allround Weightlifting in WA, and have had no issues with PA in that regard.

PS, maybe it's Minh that doesn't like Raw lifting, not good for business if a soft suit is all that's needed.
From my dealings with Robert he likes raw and isn't a fan of bench shirts, I got the impression the main barrier to raw is dilution of competition, and the fact there is no international IPF competition for raw. But that will probably change as RAW Unity in the USA is growing rapidly.

In the meantime I'll keep doing both equipped and raw. That way I have 9 different PR's to beat in the 3 lifts.
Squat raw, with wraps, and suited
Bench raw and shirted
Deadlift raw conventional, raw sumo, suited conventional, suited sumo.
Raw is more fun, and much easier on my body, but I don't have any competition.
The two guys above me in the PA 110 rankings would easily beat me raw currently.

It is possible to promote the federation you've chosen without slagging off the opposition.
Adam Coe introduced me to powerlifting as well, he's always be supportive of my decision to pick IPF over CAPO.

cheers

Paul

Your taking snippets of my comments and misunderstanding.

Oliver stated that by lifting with PA, you can lift with the IPF. I told him that Simon Chang has qualified for thejunior worlds twice, and wont go over because they are juiced, so I said, which you have quoted twice out of context now, why lift with PA if the strongest guys are juiced. Meaning the WORLDS strongest guys in the IPF, which is why Simon wont go over.

Now read this bit carefully as I feel you dont understand the sequence of events.

Ray has been lifting at PTC events before he joined PA. Simon competed once.

When Paul Nay took over CAPO, he approached me and asked if my lifters would like to lift at a CAPO novice comp, this was in 2009. I offered it to my lifters, they asked what I thought, and like you, I said the competition was much higher at PTC. We have had 37 lifters at my events, while CAPO had 12 lifters at its last Vics, and PA had 20.

We continued on our blissful way, Paul stayed in touch via calls, texts and emails, we still werent interested. We discussed why and I said we wanted some changes.

Then I get a call from Simon Chan telling me he has been suspended by PA, and Shorty will be too. He explained that a PA lifter had dobbed them in for lifting at PTC.

At this point, I had zero connection with CAPO, we had no intention of ever going official.

Shorty and Simon asked me not to rip into PA on my newsletters till after their hearing. They are mates, so I said nothing.

then comes the mysterious phone call, asking all sorts of details about our 5 lift comps.

the same morning I announced we are lifting with CAPO, I hate that shit.

The sequence of these events can be verified by Raymond Wong, Simon Chan and Minh Nguyen, all PA lifters.

I never slagged anyone off until PA pissed me off. Simon also alerted me to rumours coming from PA in regards to PTC which I wont mention.

FFS, we are a shitty 2 car garage, not a federation, we hold inhouse comps, not open to the public, just clients and forum members.

Why has PA done this to its 2 lifters, why the dobbing, why get our venue taken away, why the mysterious calls.

CAPO is run by lifters for lifters, not to sure about the whinging dibber dobbers at PA.

If you know any more than this, please enlighten me.

Why did they ban lifters for lifting in my garage?

PTC is a garage that holds 5 lift comps, not powerlifting meets. We are not a federation. Imagine if I called WADA and asked for accreditation lol

Markos,
from what you've said I can't see any reason in the regulations that would justify Simon and Ray being suspended. They should be allowed to keep lifting in your events as there is nothing in the regulations against it.
Looks like you've been hard done by.
In the three years I've been a PA member only 1 person has been suspended for lifting in a non PA event, and that was the CAPO pro bench, and the IPF rule was applied not the PA rule. Google "powerlifting watch aussie" for the story

Paul

I think its insane, I really cant work out why Simon and Ray have been victimized. I've never even met Robert, I was told by PA lifters that it was another PA lifter that dobbed them in. There was another bigger guy from PA that came to watch, they tell me its not him, he seemed like a pretty cool guy anyway.

The little you know about me, do you think thats the kind of federation I'd like my lifters to lift in?

I asked Paul for a lot of changes, he's done everything so far.

Results go up quickly
Record boards updated
Previous knee wrapped squats moved to historical out of raw

as long as CAPO keep providing a friendly atmosphere at their comps, and we continue to get the numbers, we will be very happy there.


Say hello to Adam when you see him next

Just clearing up a few things, neither myself(Simon Chan) or Raymond Wong have been suspended from competition as yet.

Markos, the reason I don't go to the worlds is because I'm a poor uni student who spends all his money on his turbo car, I'd be happy to go and get my arse kicked at the worlds if I could get the cash together!

My goal is to compete at the IPF junior worlds in 2013 and get a medal(probably in the deadlift), my last year of juniors. I should be working full time as a podiatrist then, so I should be able to scrounge up the 3-5k needed!

Of course there will always be people who can beat the system regarding anti-doping(Russians/Ukrainians mostly), but I don't think that means we should give up on anti-doping programs, I do personally believe they do a lot of good.

Back to the original post, about CAPO getting kicked out of Hawthorn Weightlifting Centre...

The hawthorn weighlifting centre are affilliated with the IWF, which is affiliated with the ASC and ASADA. Weightlifting as a sport, in Australia depends on drug testing, and possibly funding aswell from the ASC/ASADA.

Allowing CAPO to hold competitions at their centre would be seen by the ASC as them supporting untested sporting events, which is bad bad bad in their eyes - and they need to keep the ASC and ASADA happy!

I'm guessing that for hawthorn to even allow CAPO to use their facility, they were under the impression that they were ASC recognised, and ASADA drug tested. Whether they were purposely mislead into thinking this by CAPO is another thing.

When they were contacted by PA about having comps their, they were no doubt completely baffled and confused, and upon finding out that PA was infact the legitimate ASC recognized federation for our sport, and that they had been unknowingly supporting untested sporting events, I'm guessing they were horrified at this, and decided to put an end to it then and there to prevent any negative ramifications.

Some guys do everything in their powers to progress the sport and encourage lifters, then there is PA.

The management at Hawthorn were blown away by the comp and the numbers on the weekend, hope PA can match it for their states.

The Nats will be back at the Crest as far as I know.

I have to be careful what I say because I have friends at PA who tell me stuff I cant repeat.

I'm going to drop it.