Mason tender Scott Law and bricklayer Damian Amuso will compete as a pair for the second time at the Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 in Las Vegas, with this year being the third time overall that Team Amuso has competed at the event.
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Over the past few weeks, it’s been bricks-galore for Team Amuso, as the duo prepares for a unique kind of Olympics.
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For the third time, the team, comprised of Kilmore locals Damian Amuso and Scott Law, will be representing the nation at the Spec Mix Bricklayer 500, aka the “Bricklaying Olympics”, held in Las Vegas.
Damian’s wife, Tara, who became the first woman to compete as a mason tender at the event in the team’s first performance in 2019, said it had been a rapid crunch time in the lead-up to this year’s event, with the team not having plans to compete until receiving a recent callout.
“Last year, they laid 721 bricks and the winner laid 738, so they did really well. But then, look, we thought, ‘we’re done now, we’ll give it up and let someone else go’,” she said.
“We started focusing on other things in life, and we gave up on that dream, but then, a couple of months back, we got an unexpected email from the head of the company asking for us to come back.
“It has been a last-minute scramble with the campaign because we’ve got to get it out there, secure sponsors and everything like that. It was much later than we would have liked to have started.”
Despite the later-than-anticipated onset, confidence exudes from the team.
Ms Amuso said her husband, who has 20 years of experience in the bricklaying industry, had recently achieved a PB at a training session, raising the team’s spirits to an all-time high.
Last year, Team Amuso was just 17 bricks shy of winning the competition, but now the locals are amped to take home a victory for Australia.
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“On the confidence side of things, Damian hit a PB at a training session last weekend. He laid the most bricks he’s ever laid,” she said.
“I was actually crying, I was so proud of him.
“If he lays that many bricks on the day, there’s no doubt in my mind that he will win the competition.”
During the event, which will be held at 5am on Thursday, January 22, Australian Eastern Standard Time, Mr Amuso and Mr Law will be up against 29 other teams, hailing from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
To prepare, it’s been days of interval-style training for the pair, who have been using 20,000 custom-manufactured US-spec bricks produced, for the first time in Australia, by sponsor Krause Bricks.
The team has also been backed by Australian Brick and Blocklaying Training Foundation, Eco Group and DAT Tools.
Ms Amuso said, while she was no longer on the chopping block serving as her husband’s mason tender, she still felt the adrenaline as the competition unfolded.
“It felt like a movie last year. It’s like an out-of-body experience. I’m sitting and my heart’s beating at a million miles an hour,” she said.
“It was just a sickening feeling because I’ve got no control in how this works out. So, I just have to scream and hope that he does amazing. And he did.”
The team is set to fly out on Sunday, January 18, and will spend just four nights in the States before returning home, where the Amusos will be with their son on his birthday.
For more information on the event, or to view the livestream, visit tinyurl.com/527xjswz, or follow @TeamAmuso on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date with the local competitors.
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