Athletes and Promoters,
As you know,United States Strongman, Inc. is all about you! In an effort to keep things fresh and provide you the athletes with every opportunity as well as to make the promoters job simpler we have come up with an idea!
We have observed over the years of competing and watching competitions that often the winners of the novice divisions are pretty competitive. They could likely qualify for NATS in a open class contests. So, starting this weekend of July 25, we will qualify the WINNER of each DIVISION! This means the the overall Lightweight Novice and Heavyweight Novice will qualify for 2016 USS NATS in Louisville , KY!!!
Also, not to snub the open competitors, we will go to a default CLASS qualification! This means that instead of qualifying 1, 2 or 3 competitors per division or class based on numbers, we will Auto-Qualify the top THREE (3) of each Open Men, Women and Masters CLASS! The only requirement is that the competitor MUST weigh-in in that weight class. If there are only 2 people then they both qualify. If there are 30 in that class, then the top 3 qualify...
Here is the example:
At a contest there are 35 novice competitors in two DIVISIONS: Lightweight and Heavyweight. There are 20 Lightweight and 15 Heavyweight. The overall winner of each DIVISION in the novice will qualify for NATS - 1 Lightweight and 1 Heavyweight.
In that same contest, there are any number of open competitors in the 165, 181, 198, 220, 242, 275, 308 and 308+ CLASSES. The top THREE (3) in each CLASS will qualify for NATS as long as they weigh-in in that class.
Here are a few recommendations and reminders:
1) DIVISIONS are broader that CLASSES. IE, Middle weights are a DIVISION and in that division there are two classes: 198 and 220 for men, and 148 and 165 for women.
2) It is a good idea to split the Novice Lightweight and Heavyweight Divisions at 220 lbs (100 Kg) for the men ans 148 lbs (67.5 Kg) for women. This allows the LW Novice winner to compete as a LW or MW at Nats and the HW novice winner as a HW or SHW.
3) Both classes in the open divisions should use the same weights at a contest. IE: 165s and 181s should use the same weights. 198s and 220s should uses the same weights, etc... It is okay if the HW ans SHW use the same weights.
4) If you are ever not sure as a promoter, please contract us - we want to help make it right out of the gate!
5) Promoters - please submit all final score sheets as a spreadsheet (Excel or similar). Highlight the athletes that qualify. We will convert t to PDF. And, remember to put both First and Last names on those sheets!
Thank YOU for making USS amazing!
The VEEP