2026 USAPL BENCH NATIONALS RECAP

This year Final Form brought a new athlete to Bench Nats: Lawa Dowdell. We only had about 5 weeks to prep for this meet, but Lawa absolutely crushed it in training and we knew going in that we had a shot at the podium. Unfortunately the seemingly way-too-common flight delays struck again as he tried to make his way up to Wisconsin. Lawa's flight ended up getting canceled due to weather issues, and he had to spend the night in the airport and wait for an early AM flight to Detroit before catching his connecting flight to WI. He ended up making it just in time.

Normally these issues would totally throw an athlete off, but we were prepared for this. We made sure he kept up on his food intake and he did his best to get sleep in where he could. So when it came time to perform the man did not miss a beat. Lawa ended up going 3/3, and taking care of business with 235kg/518lbs for his 3rd attempt. This was good enough to secure 4th place overall and some money. His DOTS score was just a fraction of a point away from 3rd place, and 1 point away from 2nd. The man absolutely clutched up in only his 2nd meet ever. We are beyond proud of the man! Next year Final Form will bring both Lawa and Todd so we can continue our dominance of USAPL bench meets. On to the next!