We moved back into the welcoming warmth of Burns Gym for event 4 for that quintessential strength display – the deadlift. The rules where simple enough 2 bars where loaded with 280 kg and the athletes had 90 seconds in which to pull as many reps as they could. After what in strongman terms can be described as a throughout warm up the athletes faced off in pairs. By this time of the comp most of the lads would have been feeling pretty brittle and here is where there bodies would break against the rocks. The eventual winner was John who pulled a storming 11 reps and looked good doing it fast and aggressive that is probably the most impressive display of strength I have seen in the flesh in quite some time. In second place Nick and Luke had 8 reps.
Winner – John with 11 reps
Personal Favorite – Mark Hunter with my own personal bias of training with Mark he pulled 5 reps with a previous best of 2 reps to more than double your rep PB after 4 3 previous events shows guts!
You can see the deadlift event along with Nick’s 6th place performance in the video below
Event 5 – Arm Over Arm
In the penultimate event athletes where given 90 seconds in which to pull a heavy 4 link chain 20 meters using nothing but a rope and their tired and battered bodies. With the day drawing in and night approaching athletes and spectators alike where feeling the drain of a long day of grueling events. Most people made hard work of the chain drag with only a handful of athletes actually completing the course. Mark hunter finished the course in a good time of 30 seconds showing athleticism and strength but he couldn’t hold out Luke who was apparently reasonably unpracticed but proceeded to romp to victory using a combination of raw strength, power and fitness to complete the event.
Winner – Luke
Personal Favorite – Mark Hunter who’s performance you can see in the video below
Event 6 – Stones
And to end a long day the classic and body breaking event of Atlas stones. Athetes had 90 seconds in which to drag their beaten carcass through 6 stones. 110 – 140kg stones done to a 52″ platform, 160kg and 185kg stones done to lower heights. Thankful to be back in the heat of the gym the crowd watched on enthused as the lads put together one last ditch effort to complete the stone run. All 22 men had a go but only two had enough to finish all of the stones both Luke and Thomas showed great staying power to finish all of the stones and the crowd cheered them every step of the way. Thomas Parke was the eventual winner making short work of all the stones.
Winner + Favorite Performance – Thomas Parkes
Below you can see Luke finishing the stone run and the eventual winning Performance.
Final Standings
1 Luke 125.5 1st 125.5
2 Stevie 120.5 2nd 120.5
3 John 93 3rd 93
4 Tom 92.5 4th 92.5
5 Mark 89.5 5th 89.5
6 Nick 86 6th 86
7 Bren 75.5 7th 75.5
8 Stuart 75 8th 75
9 Lee 73.5 9th 73.5
10 Gary 73 10th 73
11 Davy 71.5 11th 71.5
12 Lewis 66 12th 66
13 John 64.5 13th 64.5
14 Brian 63 14th 63
15 Ken 62.5 15th 62.5
16 Colin 57.5 16th 57.5
17 Neil 44 17th 44
18 Euan 39.5 18th 39.5
19 Ian 38.5 19th 38.5
20 Danny 30 20th 30
21 James 27 21st 27
22 Sean 19 22nd 19
Conclusion
During what proved to be a very long day (rules were given at 11.45 and the last stone run was finished at 18:30) we seen a lot of new athletes really increase the standard of Scottish strongman. There are a lot of young lads who with some more events practice under their belts could be a force to be reckoned with at National and International level competition. The prospect of having another Scottish lad at WSM doesn’t seem too far fetched after yesterday’s comp. Good day out and more importantly the grass roots of Scottish Strongman is growing stronger.
Marc.