30 men battled it out over 5 heats, and now we are down to just 10. These are the 10 strongest men in the world, but when it’s all said and done, only ONE can be named the WORLD’S STRONGEST MAN!!!
Athletes
Brian Shaw – USA
JF Caron – Canada
Hafthor J Bjornsson – Iceland
Dimitar Savatinov – Bulgaria
Zydrunas Savickas – Lithuania (Reigning World’s Strongest Man)
Mikhail Shivlyakov – Russia
Mark Felix – England
Jerry Pritchett – USA
Mike Burke – USA
Eddie Hall – England
Event 1 – Super Yoke
499kg Yoke, complete with 2 benches on either side filled with people!!! Our strongmen must lift it and run down the course in the fastest time possible. 2 sets of 5 will go against each other here, and in the first set Eddie Hall is the winner in under 30 seconds! Everyone else is unable to get down the course except for JF Caron, who dropped the yoke at one point, costing him a lot of time. Can the next set do better? Given that the top 4 from last year, and Mark Felix are in this set, I’d expect almost everyone to finish and likely one or two in a faster time than Eddie. Thor and Shaw are off like a rocket, and it’s THOR who gets the win with Brian just behind him, followed by Big Z. All of them beat Hall’s time, followed by Burke. Felix is unable to finish. Some great times here!
Event 2 – Deadlift
Time for Mark Felix to pick up some good points, and Eddie to likely go better than 4th place too. Well, Mark Felix is actually only tied for 2nd atm with 3 reps, with JF Caron leading the pack with 5 reps, and just 4 men left to go. Big Z Vs Hall next, and this should be a great battle. Hall is the faster man, but we all know Big Z is typically a slow puller on the deadlift, but he actually looks to be struggling here, “only” managing 5 to tie with Caron. But it’s Hall who impresses the world with 7 reps, and it will take a huge effort from Thor and Shaw to get that. Thor is doing well for an event that used to be one of his weakest, while Shaw is making this look EASY! Thor gets to 6, putting him ahead of even Big Z, while Shaw just creeps out an 8th rep to take the win from even Eddie Hall!!!
Event 3 – Truck Pull
The Bus Pull in the heats was almost impossible outside of a small handful of men. I just wonder how much more difficult this truck pull with be, considering it’s the final! 6 men have gone and NOBODY have beaten this as of yet. Time for the big boys to come out and play, starting with Big Z. Wow, in a big surprise, not even the champion finishes the course, but he is in current 1st place with a distance of 22m. Thor is out next and you know he will be determined to conquer this truck. His technique isn’t looking good here though, and he doesn’t even look like he’ll pass Big Z’s distance, which is yet another surprise. I guess I already have my answer; this truck is MUCH more difficult than the bus from the heats! Can Eddie Hall be the first man to cross the line? Nope, and his distance is only good enough for 3rd so far. Finally we have Brian Shaw, and if anyone can do it, Brian can. He’s the second tallest man behind Thor, but more importantly for this event he is the heaviest man in the final. Combine that with the strength that’s taken him to the title two times, he should at least win this event. He doesn’t cross the line either, but he DOES take first place!!!
Halfway into the final, so let’s have a look at the scores!!!
Seems Brian Shaw is on track for his third title win, with Thor closely behind. The big surprise here is that while Big Z is in 3rd place, he is 5.5 points away from Shaw, and Eddie Hall is only half a point from him and could sneak a podium win away from the champion.
Event 4 – Power Stairs
Not often we see this event, but it’s been an event that allows Big Z to take back his title in 2012 after losing it in 2011 to Shaw. So far, only Mike Burke has completed the course, so it’s down to the final 4 men again, with Big Z going up against Hall. Big Z completes the event before Eddie even gets his second weight up the steps. This is definitely Z’s event to lose! Hall unfortunately only gets 13 steps out of 15 finished, which is going to really hinder his opportunity to overtake Big Z by the end of this competition. So, let’s find out what Shaw and Thor are capable of! Being tall here should help them out, and wow, both men are making light work of this! Thor is ahead of Shaw, and is chasing down Big Z’s time, but just misses out. Shaw is only seconds behind, but that’s only good enough for 3rd place here. Big Z needed a good result here, and that’s exactly what he got!
Event 5 – Log Press
And another event that Big Z should excel in. After all, he IS the world record holder! Thor on the other hand is not the greatest at overhead pressing, and he goes out at 180kg being his max lift. Shaw, Eddie and Big Z are almost guaranteed to beat that weight, but as I say that, Shaw fails his next lift and also goes out at 180kg. Eddie up next to attempt 195kg, and being the UK record holder, he POWERS this weight up with just his arms. He nearly blacks out afterwards, but he locks it out and looks to be ok. Big Z last, and 195kg for him is absolutely nothing. Well, seems I forgot about Dimitar, who is also still in this, and is attempting 205kg now, while Eddie Hall bows out at 195kg! He doesn’t make 205kg though, so he ties with Eddie at 195kg. Big Z now simply needs to lift the next weight successfully and he’s got first place. 205kg for him is once again nothing. Big Z is getting back into this competition again!
One event left, so let’s go to the scores and see how close things are at the top of the leader board! Wait! Before we do that, Big Z actually wants to attempt a NEW world record with the log lift! He tried earlier in the year at a giants live and didn’t make it, so he wants to pull out something special here. He doesn’t make it this time either, but considering he’s already done numerous lifts today and 4 other events in the last 2 days, he will likely be a little tired.
Two event wins in a row for Big Z have put the reigning champion into first place, but only half a point behind him is Brian Shaw, and Thor isn’t far off either. Eddie Hall promised a top 4 finish and he looks to be on track to do that. The Atlas Stones will be the final event to this competition, and will once again decide the World’s Strongest Man!!!
Event 6 – Atlas Stones
6 men have gone, and again we are left with the big 4. Thor Vs Hall to go first. Mike Burke managed all 5 stones, the only man ever to do it! Thor is known as the king of stones, but it’s EDDIE who gets off to the fastest start, and not only that, but he gets 5 stones up in an INCREDIBLE time of 24.84 seconds!!! Thor also gets 5 up in 31 seconds, but Eddie just beat the king of the stones like it was nothing! That might actually put Eddie on the podium! Well, with half a point separating them, it’s time for Big Z and Brian Shaw to battle for the title!!! Z starts off faster, but a mistake on the third stone allows Shaw to go in front and even beat Hall’s time!!! Brian Shaw is once again the NEW World’s Strongest Man!!! Incredible!!!
And the overall scores to confirm everyone’s place:
Brian Shaw once again the champion, while Eddie doesn’t quite make a podium finish, but did finish in 4th place as promised. Big Z and Thor are separated once again by just half a point, the exact same as last year, only it was for second place this time around! Congrats to Brian Shaw on winning and becoming a 3 time World’s Strongest Man!!!
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