Final
Here we go! The 10 strongest men on earth have come together to compete for the title of World’s Strongest Man! Here are the athletes:
Martins Licis – USA
Matjaz Belsak – Slovenia
Eddie Hall – Great Britain
Grzegorz Szymanski – Poland
Hafthor Bjornsson – Iceland
Konstantine Janashia – Georgia
JF Caron – Canada
Laurence Shahlaei – Great Britain
Brian Shaw – USA (Current Champion)
Mateusz Kieliszkowski – Poland
I’ve already made my predictions, which can be found here, so lets just get right into this!
Event 1 – Frame Carry
This or the frame carry are well known for started off a WSM Final these days, and 2016 is no different! The weight is 365kg, and the course is 30m.
Kieliszkowski, Caron, Belsak, Shahlaei and Licis will be the first men to take on this task. Shahlaei is incredible at this event, and shows it in the beginning, but its Kieliszkowski, perhaps the fasted man in the sport, with the win! Shahlaei drops it and gets beaten for 2nd place by Licis. Belsak could barely move the weight, sadly. Next we have Hall, Janashia, Szymanski, Thor and Shaw! Shaw and Thor SHOULD finish this in a good time. Thor drops it before he even gets to the half way mark! Janashia is the one to finish first, then Shaw, but neither beat that fast time from Kieliszkowski. Hall hasn’t done well, likely due to his injured fingers.
Laurence Shahlaei sadly has to withdraw due to injury.
Event 2 – Circus Barbell
An overhead event, but the weights at either end of the bar are those oversized circus weights. 163kg too!
5 men have gone so far, with Janashia leading atm with 7 reps. Kieliszkowski and Shaw are the first men we get to see. Both are very powerful overhead, but balancing the large weights is a difficult task. Shaw leads, while Kieliszkowski struggles most just getting it to his shoulders, but once there he can easily press it out. In the end, time beats them both, and Kieliszkowski only gets 5 with Shaw on 7 for current joint first place. Hall and Thor are last, and this should be a very good event for Hall, which is needs following his terrible first event. Eddie is going well, and Thor is a rep behind all the way but also going well. Both get 6 with 20 seconds left, then each lift a 7th. Hall JUST scrapes the 8th out, while Thor also gets 8 and almost a 9th!
Event 3 – Deadlift
Yet another even for Eddie Hall to gain more points and continue to climb up the leader board!
The opening weight was 375kg, and 2 men were unable to go past it. 2 more dropped after 400kg, and we are left with 5 men! A few have done 420kg, and now Eddie gets his turn. As the world record holder, this will be easy for him, and it is! Even with dislocated fingers! 435kg now, though Eddie is skipping this weight. Caron is the first to take on this new weight, and in impressive fashion gets it! Only a couple of years ago this would have been world record territory! Shaw next and he too does it. Thor now, and his best is 440kg, so 5kg less is something he can do, but on this day he can’t. Maybe its the heat, or maybe he’s tired from the previous event. Janashia now, lets see what he can do! Not this weight, unfortunately. We now go to 445kg, and again Caron is the first to take it. Caron doesn’t make it. Hall is next, and gets it, giving him another deadlift world record for this particular bar! Shaw is the previous record holder and wants to at least equal it here! It was slow, but Shaw locks it out and equals the record! Both men decide to stop there, rather than continuing and exerting more energy.
We are halfway into the final, so lets see where everyone sits on the leader board!
The reigning champion is leading now, and Janashia is surprising everyone right now by being in second place! Thor is moving down, which he won’t like, and Eddie is moving on up thanks to 2 event wins after coming in last in the first event.
Event 4 – Plane Pull
In the heats, we had an 18 tonne truck. For the final? a 40 tonne plane!!!
6 men have taken on this event, but so far nobody has crossed the line. Janashia is leading with 24.06m, so very close to that 25m finishing line. Now its time for the BIG GUNS to come out and give this a go! Eddie Hall first. His body weight will give him an advantage for getting this started, and he does indeed get off to a great start. However, will those fingers hinder him? So far no! 24.45m is it for Eddie, which does put him in the lead and guarantees him at least 3rd place. Will THOR do better and cross the line? He too gets a great start, but can he keep it going? He’s slowing down, and does get past Eddie Hall, but still fails to get over the line. 24.90m for the Icelander, but he’ll be disappointed with not finishing. Now its the champions turn! His start doesn’t look as good, but its how you finish that matters most. Like most others, once he gets to that 20m mark he slows down. He beats Hall, but fails to match Thor. What a BRUTAL event!
Event 5 – Kettlebell Throw
Years ago, this would be the keg toss. 6 to 8 kegs, ranging in weight, thrown over a bar. Now though, the keg toss is about 1 weight, and an increasing bar height. So the athletes now need to throw 7 kettlebells over a 4.8m bar, with weights ranging from 20 to 30kg. The technique behind this makes it one of the most difficult events in the sport. Eddie Hall for example is not typically good at this, while Shaw and Thor are excellent.
6 men have already tackled this, with Caron and Janashia each getting 5, though Caron takes current first due to doing it in a faster time. Hall is next, and while never being good at this event, he also has those injured fingers which will not help him. He needs to take his time and concentrate on getting more than 5 over rather than getting a fast time, as he simply won’t beat Thor and Shaw in that way. 5 are over, and due to his time he only gets 2nd, so he’ll likely end up in 4th overall here. Thor gets his shot next and expect these to go flying! 5 go flying, but the 6th proves to be a challenge. He does get it over, but not in the time he’ll have wanted. Can the 7th be done? Ohhh, so close, but time is up now. He has current 1st place, but Shaw will be determined to get all 7. He takes him time to ensure he doesn’t make the mistake Thor did. Time doesn’t matter here; getting the 7th one over does. He actually wins with a fast time for 6, but well, he wants that 7th over anyway! Oh, he doesn’t get it over, but it doesn’t matter, because he WINS!
1 event left. The Stones. Lets check on the scores first though!
Shaw is still on top, but Thor is only 3 points away now. Janashia might be in third now, but Hall is only 1 point from that podium position, and considering he beat the mighty Thor on the stones last year, we KNOW he’s great at this event.
Event 6 – The Atlas Stones
And so, as always, it comes down to this!
5 men have been. Licis is leading so far, being the only man to complete all 5 stones, and he did it in 34.80 seconds. Eddie Hall against Janashia is next, and Hall will need to beat Janashia to secure a podium finish. Hall is fast, and is a stone ahead of Janasia all the way! 5 stones in 29.68 seconds, and he’s on the podium! Well done Eddie! Now. Who will be champion? Shaw has a 3 point lead, but Thor WANTS the title bad. Both are excellent in this event. Thor is just ahead of Shaw, but Shaw can still win overall. Thor gets the 5th stone up first in the fastest time, but Shaw comes in second and that gives him his 4th WSM title!!!
No stones results show on screen, so here are the overall results!
Brain Shaw, now a 4 time winner, just 1 away from matching the 5 titles of Marius. Thor again has to settle for 2nd place, but Eddie Hall moves up a spot from last year and gets on the podium. The big question now is, how good will he be next year WITHOUT dislocated fingers?!?!
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