The IPF Regional Championships 2017

One of the IPF’s primary goals is the development of lifters from first-time novices to international-level athletes. As we reviewed 2016 we noticed that we were lacking a truly prestigious intermediate-level championships for lifters who are comfortable on the platform but not quite at national or international level yet.

Our national and international level athletes had Worlds, Nationals, and All Irelands to focus on and we ran several successful Opens (Boyneside, Athlone, RevFit) for lifters of all abilities.

In 2o17, we are introducing a new national-level event: The IPF Regional Championships.

The Regional Championships will be a team based event with certain criteria applying in terms of gender and age balance (e.g. including a certain number of male and female athletes across sub-juniors, juniors, open, and masters categories).

They will also be a “national-level” competition in that you will be able to set and break National Records as well as the usual criteria in terms of IPF Approved (vs. IPF Specification) equipment and so on.

The winning region will, of course, claim bragging rights for a year!

What are the IPF Regional Development Teams?

The teams for the Regional Championships will be selected from the IPF’s Regional Development Teams which are currently coached by:

  • Leinster: James Hanley
  • Ulster: Seán Ryan
  • Munster: Arthur Lynch
  • Connacht: TBC

There are no black-and-white criteria for invitation to the Regional Development Teams in terms of qualifying totals, etc. The general guideline is a lifter who is on the way to National Qualification Standards (2017) but not quite there yet.

If you feel like you’re ready for the Regional Development Teams and are committed to training and improving your lifting then get in touch with the coach for your province and ask about getting involved.

When will the IPF Regional Championships take place?

We’re still nailing down the final date and venue for the Regional Championships but it will likely be late Autumn / early Winter.

Have some feedback? Get involved in the IrishPF Discussion Group on Facebook.