World Tour Finals 2023
The final Giants Live event before we get to see the World’s Strongest Man competition!!! Sure, this event took place after the WSM, but forget about that and just enjoy the show. Also, we have the world LOG LIFT championships to look forward to as well!
Evans Nana – Ghana
Ondrej Fojtu – Czech Republic – Under 23 Log Press World Record holder
Conor Curran – Scotland
Pa O’Dwyer – Ireland – 5x Ireland’s Strongest Man
Tyler Cotton – USA – America’s Strongest Man 2023
Mat Ragg – New Zealand – 6x New Zealand’s Strongest Man
Eddie Williams – Australia
Gavin Bilton – Wales – 2nd at Britain’s Strongest Man 2023 & Strongman Open 2023
Pavlo Kordiyaka – Ukraine – Europe’s Strongest Man 2023
Luke Stoltman – Scotland – Europe’s Strongest Man 2021 & World Tour Finals winner 2021
Mitchell Hooper – Canada – Arnold Strongman Classic winner 2023 & World Tour Finals winner 2022
Iron Biby – Burkina Faso – Log Lift and Axel Press World Record Holder
Tom Stoltman – Scotland – 2x World’s Strongest Man
Another fantastic lineup for a Giants Live, with some HUGE names along with some more unknown ones looking to get noticed! For the log lift, I think it all comes down to Luke and Biby for the win. For the overall competition? Tom and Mitchell are odds on favourites with the likes of Luke, Pavlo and Bilton all in with a chance at the podium too.
Event 1 – Log Lift Challenge
Gotta lift a massive log overhead. Max weight wins. Simple! The opening weight is 170kg, and the current world record is 229kg (held by Iron Biby), so I’m guessing 230kg will be the new world record attempted weight if we get to that! Round 1 has already happened, with O’Dwyer and Curran having not lifted at all, not sure why. Bilton, Williams and Nana made 170kg but failed the next weight of 186kg. Everyone else managed it while we still have Biby and the Stoltman brothers waiting their turn! First then is Tom, who is a massive presser in his own right, but often gets underrated because of how good his brother is. 186kg is easy for the 2x WSM winner. His brother Luke has his attempt, but FAILS the first attempt. A second attempt looks good but he doesn’t get it for whatever reason (hard to see from the view we get). A third attempt is made in the time and… this time Luke gets it. Not good for Luke as those extra attempts will have drained his energy. Now for Biby who makes 186kg look like 18kg. We then jump to round 4, which is 210kg. The previous round was 200kg, which Cotton and Kordiyaka managed, but 210kg proves too much for them. 4 men remain; Tom, Luke, Biby and Hooper! First up then is Tom, and he POWERS it up over his head and makes it! I don’t see him going any further though. Now for Luke who had a hard time at 186kg, but has done MORE than 210kg before so he should be good for this. However, on this day, his younger brother has beaten him! Those extra lifts definitely didn’t help. Now for Hooper, and boy does he struggle to just get the log up, but he gives the actual press a good shot. No lift for him though. Biby is last and I expect this to be another fairly easy lift. And yes. Yes it was. Tom has bowed out to save energy for the rest of the event, while Biby, who is just a guest lifter for this one event, is going for 230kg! Last time he broke the record, a lot of people didn’t think he actually got the lift as it seemed like he didn’t hold it for a long enough period to get a good lift. Absolutely no doubt here with this lift as he clearly locks out and holds it in place for a couple of seconds! Amazing!
Event 2 – Sandbag Steeplechase
This is a new event for Giants Live, and not something I’ve ever seen in any other competition either. The strongmen have to lift a 150kg sandbag and run it down a course of 10m, lift it over a steeplechase, then lift it back up and carry it another 10m to the end of the course where the bag has to be loaded onto a platform. I think. Oh, ok, after seeing some clips of people doing it, there are 2 bags to be carried and lifted over the steeplechase, but only one to be lifted again and taken down the rest of the course and loaded on the platform? The clip was, well, clipped so didn’t see all of the run. Cotton and Fojtu are the first men we get to see do it and both bags do indeed need to be loaded on the platform. Fojtu does well, currently in first place with Cotton… somewhere. I was busy watching how the event went and writing about it lol. Bilton and Ragg are next, and its Ragg moving quicker, so much so he is in current first while Bilton ends up 4th. Now for Kordiyaka and Luke, both who are great at loading events. Kordiyaka is the quicker of the two, and he just pips Ragg for 1st, while Luke finishes 3rd. Lastly though, its Hooper and Tom, who should be excellent. Hooper is quicker, but DROPS the sack at the end, sending him way down. Tom on the other hand picks up the event win!
Event 3 – Axle Deadlift
350kg to be deadlifted as many times in the 60 second time limit! Tom and Mitchell were 2nd and 1st respectively in this very event at the Strongman Classic earlier in the year, and I’d expect the same result here too. 5 men have been and gone, with Bilton on top with 5 reps. O’Dwyer on 4, Williams on 4, Curran on 3 and Cotton on 3. We join the action with Hooper against Fojtu. Not the best place for Hooper to be in as he has to go all out, knowing Tom gets to go after him and can’t play tactics. 7 reps for Hooper, the same as the Strongman Classic, which won him the event. 4 reps for Fojtu is a good result too. Luke and Ragg go head to head next, with Luke managing to beat his previous result on this event, getting 4 instead of 3. Ragg meanwhile looks incredible, going AHEAD of Hooper and finishing on 8 reps. Lastly its Tom against Pavlo, and Pavlo is NOT known for been a good deadlifter. He only managed 1 before, but he looks MUCH better here, getting 4. Tom is going well, getting 7 by the half way point and taking a break, but is unable to go one more. Mat Ragg is the winner!
3 events down, only 2 more to go, so let’s see the current overall scores!
Tom is now 6 points clear at the top, with Mat Ragg ahead of Hooper! Its tight at the top between Ragg, Hooper, Kordiyaka and Luke, with Fojtu and Bilton still in a position to make the podium depending on how well the next 2 events go for them!
Event 4 – Conan’s Wheel
The event is back from Europe’s Strongest Man, where Pavlo destroyed the old world record, finishing with 1009 degrees! Can the record be broken again here, and can Pavlo be the one to do it? Cotton was up first, getting 425 degrees and passing out. Thankfully he’s ok. 563 degrees for Luke Stoltman. O’Dwyer with 756 degrees, beating his own best from Europe’s earlier in the year. Normally that would be a very impressive number, but given how good the record is now, it looks poor! We join the action with Eddie Williams, who isn’t built the best for this type of event. 571 degrees for him. Mitchell Hooper gets his chance now and he’ll be desperate for a good result here to make up for the mistake on the Sandbag event. He goes into the lead so far, finishing on 841 degrees which WOULD have been a new record this time last year, so that’s how impressive it was! Now for the record holder himself, Pavlo Kordiyaka! He is running with this, going around way faster than anyone, which might be the key to success. However, out of nowhere he loses energy, and drops it at 820 degrees. Now for big Tom, who isn’t normally good at this. He seems to be struggling early on, but keeps going, refusing to give up until 618 degrees. A good performance for HIM personally, even if its not a good result for the event in general. Mat Ragg is last and he has a great chance to make up some points on Tom and put him in a great position for overall first going into the final event. In fact, he wins the event by a few degrees! 845 is the final number, and going into the final event he has a very good chance of winning!!!
Going into the final event, lets check on the scores!
Tom now only has a 2 point lead on Ragg, with Hooper 4.5 points behind him as well. Kordiyaka still has a shot at the podium too, while I think its too late now for Luke to make up enough points. Tom is king of the stones, so things will still be in his favour, however we have seen in the past, at this very competition, Tom making a mistake on the stones and losing 1st place!
Event 5 – Castle Stones
You know what this is all about; 5 stones ranging from 120kg to 200kg that need to be placed on the platforms in the fastest time. 7 men have already had their turn, with Luke in the lead so far. 5 stones in 37.56 seconds. Gavin Bilton just behind with 5 in 41.64 seconds. Nobody else managed all 5. Its now down to the final 4, all of them with a chance at the podium. Pavlo and Hooper are up first, with Kordiyaka NEEDING to do better to get that 3rd place finish. Hooper is ahead, but that 5th stone has caused him problems in the past. In fact, its causing him issues here too! Kordiyaka looks like he could get the 5th up instead, but after a failed attempt, time runs out. Both with 4, but Hooper did it faster to confirm his podium finish. Now for Ragg Vs Tom. Ragg HAS to beat Tom to stand a chance at winning. Tom one motions the 5th stone up in under 20 seconds to solidify his win. Ragg also gets 5, and does it in the 2nd fastest time to ensure his 2nd place!
And there we have it! Tom takes the win, Mat Ragg with a very, very impressive 2nd place finish and Hooper just holding on to 3rd. I look forward to seeing more of Mat Ragg in the future!
That’s is now for Giants Live, as we now move onto the HEATS for the 2023 World’s Strongest Man!!!
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