Dear members,

Before competitions start up for 2024, we wanted to remind our lifters that our mission statement as a federation is:

to attract and develop the best powerlifters in Ireland by providing excellent competitions, internationally accredited coaching, a fair playing field, and the opportunity to compete against the best in the world.

We are affiliated with the EPF and the IPF and these associations provide Irish athletes with a path to international competitions such as EPF European Championships and IPF World Championships. In order to maintain our affiliation with these federations and to continue to send Irish athletes to the international competitions, we are bound by their rules.

Although there may be some rules, or parts of them, that we may not agree with, we are still required to follow them or risk losing affiliation. One such rule we want to draw your attention to is Article 14. The rule states that members cannot take part in events that are not sanctioned by an IPF-affiliate or they risk being made ineligible to compete at National or International level for 12 months. If you are only lifting at regional level, then this rule isn’t going to affect you in terms of this eligibility but we want to remind our members that you are still taking a risk by taking part in non-WADA affiliated events.

At the beginning of 2023, the IPF made it clear to us that the IrishPF must sanction any exhibition meets in order for our lifters to be able to compete and not risk going against Article 14. As a result, we sanctioned the IrishPF division at the ABS Series in August and this meant that these lifters were able to compete at no risk.

Mediation has already happened to retrospectively protect lifters who had competed prior to that sanctioned division so protection cannot be guaranteed going forward. We support our lifters and their autonomy and encourage unity and inclusion but we are first and foremost an affiliate to an international federation which is a pathway many of our lifters need us to protect for them. If we are issued sanctions again for lifters who do not comply with Article 14, we have exhausted our options in terms of preventing those sanctions from being upheld.

 

With the welcomed increase in options to lift in Ireland, we understand it will be a difficult road for some people to navigate and are happy to talk to lifters about their individual circumstances privately. Ultimately, all anybody wants is to compete, watch our sport grow, and keep building our domestic community, but international affiliation must also be respected. 

Yours in sport,

IrishPF Executive Committee