Deadlift World Championship 2023 & World Open 2023
Time once again for the World Open, with the Deadlift World Championships taking place at the same event! Not only that, but for the first time ever we get to see the Strongwomen compete in the deadlift championships too! First up are the athletes only competing in the deadlift championships:
Rebecca Roberts – Wales – 2021 World’s Strongest Woman
Lucy Underdown – England – Deadlift Record Holder
Jamal Browner – USA
Graham Hicks – England – Britain’s Strongest Man 2019 & 2nd place at Deadlift World Championship 2022 (tied)
Ivan Makarov – Georgia – 2nd place at Deadlift World Championship 2022 (tied)
And now the athletes who will be competing in the entire show:
Oskar Ziolkowski – Poland
Evans Nana – Ghana
Shane Flowers – England
Austin Andrade – Mexico
Pa O’Dwyer – Ireland – 5x Ireland’s Strongest Man
Rob Kearney – USA
Luke Stoltman – Scotland – Europe’s Strongest Man 2021
Rauno Heinla – Estonia – Deadlift World Champion 2022
Gavin Bilton – Wales – 2nd at Britain’s Strongest Man 2023
Evan Singleton – USA – Strongman Classic 2023 winner
Oleksii Novikov – Ukraine – World’s Strongest Man 2021
Well this certainly is a helluva lineup! Multiple Giants Live winners, many Strongest Men of their respective countries over the years, a few Europe’s Strongest Men, last year’s winner of the Deadlift World Championships, and a couple of newcomers as well! PLUS the guest lifters for just the first event too! Overall I think Novikov and Singleton will be the two battling it out for the win, but 3rd place seems to be wide open looking at the list of athletes!
Event 1 – Max Deadlift
The event will be done in rounds, with the weight increasing each time. Opening weight is a massive 400kg, then 430, 455, 470… and finally the magic 505kg that everyone has been aiming for ever since Eddie Hall first did 500kg and Thor did 501kg. Everyone has had their turn so far except for Gavin Bilton, who we will see in a moment. Shockingly, Novikov did NOT make it past round 1, only managing the opening weight of 400kg. Either he’s just playing tactics by doing the opening weight to get a point and saving his energy, or he’s hurt. Stoltman, Kearney, O’Dwyer and Nana also didn’t manage the 430kg weight. Meanwhile Ziolkowski seemingly didn’t lift at all. So anyway, back to Bilton making his attempt at 430kg. Easy looking lift for him! We then go to the first round for the women, starting at 280kg. Rebecca Roberts is up first. Nice and easy for her. Lucy Underdown has her attempt now, and she is the current record holder at 300kg, so 280 shouldn’t be any trouble, and it isn’t. I imagine 300kg is going to be bestest today! Round 3 for the men, with Hicks skipping the 455kg weight. Bilton, Browner, Flowers and Andrade have all failed it. Heinla the only man to attempt it and get it so far, but we have 2 men still to go. Evan Singleton is first up for us to see, and he beats his own personal record by 3lbs! 2021 Deadlift World Champion, Ivan Marakov, is next to take on this 1003lb/455kg lift! He made it look EASY. Back to the women and its 305kg now, making it a new world record if either of them get it. Roberts up first, but she just can’t get it past the knees. Underdown gets her chance now to beat her own record, and she could have done more if she had to for sure! Easy looking lift and a new world record! Back to the men and its the 470kg lift. Hicks is the only man going for this weight that is left, as a sort of “warm up” for a potential 505kg lift. He looked VERY strong with the lift, but honestly the increase to 505kg is probably going to be too much. Underdown is BACK for more, going up to 318kg this time! Again, the lift is EASY for her and she absolutely could lift more if she wanted to. Would have been very interesting to have a full roster of women athletes competing here in an attempt to push each other more. 3 men are left now, and the weight is 505kg. Hicks is up first to attempt this insane lift, but he cannot get it past the knees. However, if Marakov and Heinla also fail, Hicks will be crowned the Deadlift World Champion! Heinla is up first, and while he gets it a little higher than Hicks, he too fails. Finally its Marakov’s chance, and he seems to have the worst attempt of them all, which is a little surprise. No world record, but Graham Hicks takes the title of Deadlift World Champion!
The guest lifters are gone now, and its just down to these athletes to compete for the rest of the show. Novikov might be right at the bottom pretty much with only 2 points, but considering his biggest rivals in Evan Singleton and Rauno Heinla lifted 455kg, they will have exhausted way more energy than the former WSM, and that should give him a massive advantage for the rest of the competition.
Event 2 – Dumbbell Ladder
And if any event could take place immediately after the deadlift to help Novikov jump up the leaderboard its this one! 5 dumbbells starting at 80kg and increasing to 90, 100, 110 and then 120kg that must be lifted in the quickest time possible. Novikov is one of the very best at this and should earn himself a good amount of points. Singleton in previous years hasn’t been the best at this, which isn’t good for him given how tired he must already be. First up was Andrade who lifted 4 up in a time of 43.52 seconds, then Singleton showing how much he’s improved and proving me wrong by getting 4 lifts in 29.79 seconds, which SHOULD mean a good result for him in the points. Ziolkowski goes one step further with all 5 in 54.36 seconds, keeping up the tradition of Polish athletes being great at this type of event. Kovikov with another shocker only manages 2 lifts, and seems to be holding his right arm. I can only assume he’s injured but trying to push through it, which isn’t a good idea. We join the action now with Nana against O’Dwyer. They seem to be in sync with their lifts on the first 2 dumbbells, then O’Dwyer just gets the third up before him. Nana takes first shot at the 4th lift but fails to lift it, followed by O’Dwyer who doesn’t quite lock out. 3 lifts each, with Pa finishing in a faster time. Luke Stoltman and Rob Kearney to go head to head now. Kearney is fantastic at this, and while Luke is an amazing presser with things such as the log, he does struggle a little at the dumbbells. They both do well on 3, then Kearney goes ahead on the 4th as Luke misses his first attempt. He gets it on the second, then manages to beat Kearney for the 5th lift with Kearney not getting it! Very good performance from Stoltman who has obviously trained this event a lot! Flowers and Bilton next, and I don’t expect them to get 5 lifts here.Flowers gives the 3rd dumbell 3 attempts, and just can’t lock it out. Bilton has a great showing with 4 lifts! What should have been a great event for Novikov was a disaster, and he has to withdraw from the competition. Singleton meanwhile continues to impress and improve, and finishes 3rd!
Event 3 – Load & Push
120kg anvil, 100kg tyre and 130kg sack must be loaded into the skip, and then pushed over the finish line in the quickest time possible! Based on Europe’s Strongest Man earlier in the year, out of the athletes that competed there and are here as well, Shane Flowers finished the best. However he was still 5th, and while we have different athletes here, I think a 5th place finish for him again would still be a great result. Expect Singleton to race down the course, and if past Polish athletes are anything to go by, Ziolkowski will be very fast as well. 4 men have been and gone, with Heinla in last atm after not finishing the course, then O’Dwyer on 56.30 seconds. Flowers ahead of him with 55.13 seconds, and Nana in the lead with 53.60 seconds. Bilton and Andrade are the first 2 men we get to see. Bilton has a much easier job with the loading part, and while he does finish ahead of Andrade overall, Nana was catching him on the push. Still only good enough for 2nd place for Bilton though. Singleton and Kearney go next and as expected, Singleton means business. Under 50 seconds for Singleton who was looking exhausted towards the end, while Kearney makes a good push for the line and I think is currently 2nd. Stoltman and Ziolkowski are last, and the experience of Stoltman seems to help him out as Ziolkowski makes a mistake on the first implement which costs him. Stoltman is going great… and finishes in 1st!!!
3 events down, and just 2 to go. With Novikov out of the competition it has definitely opened up a podium position for the rest of the athletes. Singleton has been consistently great which likely means he’s still in 1st, but Stoltman and Kearney are making a play for the other podium positions no doubt. Best check the overall scores to see!
There we have it then. Singleton still on top, with Stoltman and Kearney just behind. Bilton, Ziolkowski and Andrade all still with a good chance of taking a top 3 finish too!
Event 4 – Wrecking Ball
A 260kg ball has to be lifted off the ground using a handle that attaches to the ball via a long chain, then held for as long as possible! A difficult event and a different take on the usual deadlift hold, as you have to stand on a high platform to lift the ball, and being on a chain it can potentially move around, making it harder to keep your grip! Heinla again is currently in last place with only 24.66 seconds. Seems the deadlift championships really took it out of him. Andrade next with 47.90 seconds. O’Dwyer above him on 63.96 seconds, and finally Flowers in current 1st with a time of 65.26 seconds. We first get to see Kearney against Nana. Last year at WSM Kearney did over 1 minute, and it was only good enough for… last place in his heat. He is unable to make it that far here, while Nana continues to hold on and finishes at 69.79 seconds! Mark Felix manages 2 minutes and 20 seconds last year, and I doubt we’ll get those numbers. Bilton against Ziolkowski now, and again, last year Bilton managed just over 1 minute too. He does make it over the minute mark, with Ziolkowski around 53 seconds. Finally its Stoltman and Singleton. These two were in the same heat at WSM last year, but Luke didn’t have to even compete in the Wrecking Ball event as he had enough points to win his group. Singleton on the other hand was taking to hospital after the first event after nearly passing out from an allergic reaction I believe it was. He would return to the competition and last 1 minute 40 seconds in the Wrecking Ball hold despite not being anywhere near 100%! If that’s what he was able to do then, imagine what he can do now! Singleton looks calm and somewhat comfortable, while Stoltman is really struggling from 30 seconds, and only manages around 48 seconds. Evan beats the best time with 75 seconds!
One event left, so lets have a look at the scores!
Well… pretty sure this means Evan Singleton has already WON the competition now! But that bad performance from Luke means that SEVEN athletes will now be competing for the other 2 podium spots! It really is all to play for in the final event!
Event 5 – Castle Stones
You know what this is all about; 5 stones ranging from 100kg to 180kg that need to be placed on the platforms in the fastest time. Luke is very good at this event so he has to feel confident going into it, with honestly nobody else standing out to me as a really good stone lifter. Singleton obviously is, but since he’s already won the competition, will he even bother? My heart says YES as he loves to compete and give it 100% at all times. 4 men have taken their turn, and 3 of them managed all 5 in great times too, showing me how wrong I was! 24.91 seconds for O’Dwyer, 24.17 seconds for Ziolkowski, and 22.80 seconds for Heinla who finally has a good event after the deadlift. Andrade in last with 4. First up for us to see are Flowers and Kearney! Both men have a fantastic run, finishing 1st and 2nd respectively overall so far! This is making things very interesting as literally anyone can make the podium pretty much! Nana and Bilton next, and Bilton is off like a rocket while Nana makes a couple of mistakes. Bilton is so close to taking 1st but settles for 2nd after a little struggle on the final stone. That does confirm he’s on the podium though! Now for the final 2 men; Singleton and Stoltman. Singleton lifts 1 stone and that’s it for him. Stoltman is looking good until the 5th stone and… he just can’t do it. His podium place is gone, sadly. But who IS on the podium with Bilton and Evan?
Evan Singleton takes the win of course, but we can now see Bilton takes 2nd, and Flowers takes 3rd! Poor Stoltman sent down to 6th place. What a close competition this was for everyone except Singleton! I just hope he can finally pull it all together for WSM next!