Fincher seeking global competition following finals selection
♦ Cedartown High School alum Ryan Fincher selected as one of three finalists for an international welding competition in Russia
Cedartown High School alumnus and 2017 SkillsUSA welding national champion Ryan Fincher added an additional accomplishment to his long list of achievements in Welding and Joining Technology.
On Saturday, Dec. 8, he was selected as one of three finalists to become the U.S. representative in an elite international competition against the best welders from around the world.
The announcement was made at an awards program hosted by the American Welding Society (AWS) at Alabama Robotics Technology Park in Tanner, Ala.
“The Welding program helped prepare me not only for these competitions, but also for the real world,” said Fincher.
A resident of Cedartown, Fincher has been competing in the American Welding Society (AWS) U.S. Invitational Weld Trials for the past several months.
The competition is a fourstage process to select the SkillsUSA World Team Welder to represent the nation at the WorldSkills Competition in Kazan, Russia.
By advancing to the final three, Fincher enters the final stage of the competition to select the American representative. The WorldSkills Competition will take place Aug. 22-27, 2019.
“Ryan is the first person in the State of Georgia to make it to the final three in this competition,” said Matt Hayden, instructor of Welding at Cedartown Polk County College and Career Academy.
Hayden is also an instructor of Welding at Georgia Northwestern Technical College and has been coaching Fincher since he was high a school student.
Every two years, the AWS invites the top 48 welding competitors from the National SkillsUSA Championships to compete in the four-stage competition that will decide the SkillsUSA World Team Welder.
All competitors were state champions and have competed at the National Level for SkillsUSA. In 2016, Fincher was a top six finalist in the AWS WorldSkills Pre-Trials.
The SkillsUSA World Team Welder will be selected from the top three finalists during the AWS/ SkillsUSA TeamUSA Finals, Feb. 16-23, at Alabama Robotics Technology Park.
The winner will receive a $40,000 scholarship in addition to representing the nation against the best WorldSkills welders from other countries.
Fincher already has experience in international welding competitions.
In July, he was selected by the AWS to be the American representative in the China International Welding Competition 2018 in Beijing and won the bronze medal.