Local members of the Georgia IronDawgs powerlifting team helped Team USA win the World title at the World United Amateur Powerlifting World Championship Sunday in Jonesboro in a record-setting performance. After winning the Bench Press Team World Championship three days earlier, Team USA posted a win in the Full Power division to complete the sweep.

Lula’s Robert Paden set age-group, weight-class world records in the bench press (600.7 pounds) and total (1,851.6 pounds) after a squat of 650.2 and a deadlift of 600.7 in winning the Master’s Men’s 40-44-year-old, 125-kilogram (275.575 pounds) classification. That was also good enough for the Master’s Men’s Best Lifter Award for the heavyweight classes.

Only two days after his world-record setting day in the men’s Junior (20-23-year-old) 140-plus kilograms (308.644-plus pounds), East Hall alumnus Tyler Brown, now a junior at Western Carolina University, competed in the Men’s Open Class and won again with a squat of 622.7 pounds, a bench of 529 pounds, and a deadlift of 473.7 pounds for a total of 1,625.4 pounds Friday. Brown set junior classification world marks in the squat (595 pounds); bench press (501.5 pounds) and total (1,538.2 pounds) after dead-lifting 451.7 pounds. All of his marks went up on Sunday.

Full-power Team USA Captain Mike Kidd of Gillsville had a smile on his face after four days of intense competition.

"I’m wore out," said Kidd, who also judged some of the events. "I am glad all the lifters did well. I am truly proud of all the IronDawgs that competed at this world’s meet. There were nine other countries there."

Team USA Bench Press Captain R. Garry Glenn of Oakwood added, "When you sweep a meet like this, that really says something. Our lifters came through when it counted and when the pressure was on. We set a lot of (personal records) and had lot of the top performances regardless of class. Mike did a great job in putting together the squads and deserves the majority of the credit for helping formulate our strategy."

In addition to Paden and Brown, other IronDawgs who competed at the WUAP Meet include Glenn, Tim Moon, Chris Simpson, George Bradley, Gary Hatfield, Keith Dean, Mark Driggers and Andy Williamson.

The state of Georgia will also host the Global Powerlifting Alliance (GPA) World Raw Championships the first weekend in December at the same site, the Clarion Hotel in Jonesboro.