AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR POWERLIFTING FAMILY

3 May , 2019

Our 4th Annual Kern US Open has already come and gone. Wow, what a weekend! Our goal since the beginning of our partnership in 2013 has been to build on our passion of PRO POWERLIFTING with one VISION, to create a world where the best lifters can compete at our event for significant cash prizes while supplying our viewers with the best entertainment possible. Our MISSION is to ’Support the Sport’ and the community of Powerlifting.

This meet and the influence it carries would not exist without the pioneering and creativity of Gracie Davis. Her ideas and contribution to the sport have taken this meet to levels we never imagined in the beginning. In 2016 she started a competition that offered the biggest payout in the United States. For three consecutive years her efforts have offered lifters the opportunity to compete on a stage that harnessed the largest payout in the world! Her leadership and efforts can’t be ignored and we’re very fortunate and thankful to be part of a team under her guidance. Thank you, Gracie

Huge thanks to APEMAN STRONG for their Title Sponsorship. They went above and beyond this year providing custom singlets for our athletes on top of their $10,000 donation. They’ve been behind this event since day one when it was held in our gym.

CONGRATULATIONS to our Overall Winners

Women:

1st: Marianna Gasparyan (USA) 1350.3lb total in the 123lb weight class securing a 720.67 wilks score winning $20,000

2nd: Stefi Cohen (USA) 1278.6lb total in the 123lb weight class securing a 698.11 wilks score winning $7,125

3rd: Chleo Van Wyk (AUSTRALIA) 1493.6lb total in the 181lb weight class securing a 622.98 wilks score winning $3,000

Men:

1st: Yury Belkin (Russia) 2303.8lb total in the 242lb weight class securing a 627.89 wilks score winning $20,000

2nd: Kody Blazek (USA) 1956.6lb total in the 181lb weight class securing a 606.85 wilks score winning $7,125

3rd: Jason Legrand (USA) 2204.6lb total in the 242lb weight class securing a 592.62 wilks score winning $3,000

We paid out a total of $77,750 this year!

We want to further apologize for the warping of the stage during the men’s deadlifts. We worked throughout the night Saturday to resolve the issue for our female competitors on Sunday. Next year we will come back with a new Eleiko platform and a properly reinforced stage!

Thank you to all our athletes who flew in from around the world, their fans, family, friends and everyone who joined us in Del Mar. The energy was insane! John King was on the mic with Kelly King on the mixer, they did an incredible job of keeping the intensity high and crowd up to speed for 2 days straight flawlessly announcing each athlete.

The meet ran smooth and without hiccups all thanks to our team of WRPF officials which included Kristy Hawkins, Killian Carolan, Breanne Gomez, Robert McCloskey and Andrew Herbert.

Our score table was ran by Open Powerlifting and they did an outstanding job! They’ve created a new computer scoring system which we’ve had the pleasure of seeing in action now at two of our meets! It will be available to the public this summer! It’s very user friendly even works offline!! Please go support Open Powerlifting here https://www.patreon.com/openpowerlifting

Massive thanks to Dan & Sparkle Green and the man himself Kirill Sarychev for taking us under their wings. Dan & Sparkle were instrumental in the planning of this years meet and we could not have pulled it off without them.

The officials did an excellent job performing weigh ins. Everyone was in and out in under an hour after the scales opened on both days! Thank you so much to Bob McCloskey and Leigh Estrada for running a tight ship! Huge thanks to Fights On for offering IV Hydration directly on site post weigh ins! Ask your local meet directors to get these guys out to your next meet!

Robert Speno ran an incredibly smooth platform making some lightening fast saves. We have received amazing feedback from people around the world about what great spotters we had! Their job was of injury prevention importance and they did not disappoint. Thank you Dave Bernardi, Nik Dorion, Zach Whitussen, Norman Black, Chris Ciotti, Adam Garcia, Dan Farnham & Susan Tate. They even covered the platforms in the back for lifters warming up all weekend.

The live stream was free this year and without any glitches thanks to Chris White and Laura Rosen! 72,000 people tuned in to watch from a grand total of 50 countries! Apeman Strong provided additional APECAM platform coverage for the live stream which was top notch!!

Thank you to our event sponsors: Apeman Strong, Kabuki Strength, Unbreakable Gear, Slingshot, The Marines, Hand Armor Chalk, Flights ON, Iron Life Freedom, Arsenal Strength, Bixby Clothing, Chestee, X-Bands, Kinda Fit Kinda Fat, Nightmare Muscle, Pioneer Belts, Depth Before Dishonor Squat Co, Animal, Barbell Brigade, Play Again Now, Zone Smelling Salts, Coromega, Ghost Strong Equipment and Powerlifting Motivation.

We would like to give recognition to our incredibly hard working Event Coordinator Ryan Rubio. This was Ryan’s third year with us and he absolutely crushed the planning for this years event. He gave up countless evenings and weekends on his own initiative and was on call 24/7 during the planning and execution of the event, completely exceeding our expectations. The US Open is not just our baby anymore. It now belongs to Ryan as well.

Most importantly, this meet would not be possible without YOU, our powerlifting family! Thank you for your support and because of YOU there WILL be a 2020 Kern US Open Powerlifting Meet! We look forward to celebrating our 5th anniversary with you all. Follow us for details and updates at www.kernusopen.com

Are you interested in competing next year? View where you rank at www.openpowerlifting.com. Open registration details will be released in August. If you are interested in sponsoring or being part of our event please contact kernusopen@gmail.com.

Results-https://www.openpowerlifting.org/m/wrpf/1904

The 2020 Kern US Open will be our 5th anniversary! Stay tuned, we have something very special planned.

Thank you and see you next year!

Russell Kern and Gracie V, Founders, The Kern US Open

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KERN US OPEN, powerlifting, video, wrpf