BREWER – Weightlifters from all over the state, some as young as age 13 and others over 60, already have signed up for the first-ever Maine Games/Maine State Powerlifting Championship set for March 26 at the Brewer Auditorium.

The competition is being held in Brewer as an experiment to see if Maine Games, a Saco-based sports organization that offers amateur athletic competitions, should hold a winter games event in eastern Maine.

“We’re hoping to get a lot of exposure and make it a yearly event,” Maine Games President Sean Casey, of Bangor, said Tuesday.

Maine Games is a non-profit organization that offers Olympic-style sport competitions that allow all athletes, regardless of age and ability, the opportunity to compete.

The organization celebrates good health, sportsmanship and camaraderie by hosting state competitions in a variety of different sports from baton twirling to wrestling during the summer in Portland. The group also offers programs through the Saco Recreation Department.

Organization officials now are looking into the possibility of expanding the program to eastern Maine and are using the powerlifting competition as an experiment, Economic Development Director Drew Sachs said.

“They are now considering Brewer as a site for winter games for a year from now,” he said recently. “The idea is they’re testing the market for it.”

If the Brewer event is successful, Maine Games plans to host five winter-sports athletic competitions in the area next year, Casey said.

More than 3,000 Mainers between the ages of 3 and 82 have participated in the first two Maine Games in southern Maine in 2004 and 2003.

Maine Games joined with the United States of America Power Lifting organization and Maine State Powerlifting Association to host the upcoming state championship in Brewer.

The powerlifting competition will include 24 age and gender divisions.

All competitors are amateurs, but spectators watching the competition should expect to see high caliber athletes, event commissioner Ed French, who lives in Bangor, said.

“All levels of experience will be represented,” he said. “A lot are first-time lifters.”

The competition can be a family affair, French said.

“We have a young man that’s competing who is 13 years old,” he said. “Grandparents come and support the lifters, parents come and kids come. Some whole families come. The young man I just mentioned – his father and mother are competing as well.”

Registration for the powerlifting competition, which includes a $40 entrance fee, has been extended to March 18. No registrations will be taken at the door.

The powerlifting event is drug-free and to ensure fairness random drug testing will be conducted.

So far the response has been good, as indicated by the number of registrants, Casey said.

“Approximately 125 lifters [have shown interest], male and female, that will compete for the powerlifting championship for the state of Maine,” he said. “With that win they will be eligible for the national competition.”

The event is a State Games of America qualifying event, which means anyone who medals in Brewer can compete at the 2007 national State Games competition in Colorado Springs, Colo. A total of 41 states hold state games under the National Congress of State Games, based in Colorado Springs.

Registration forms for the powerlifting competition are available at the Maine Games Web site: www.mainegames.org. For more information, contact Maine Games officials at info@mainegames.org or 284-2003.