World’s Strongest Man 2021 – Finals


Finals

And here we are. The grand finals. One man will become the NEW World’s Strongest Man, and 9 will have to bow down before him!!!

  • Brian Shaw – 4x World’s Strongest Man
  • Maxime Boudreault – Competed in WSM 2020
  • Tom Stoltman – Britain’s Strongest Man 2021 & 2nd Place WSM 2020
  • Trey Mitchell III – 8th place WSM 2019
  • JF Caron – 3rd place WSM 2020
  • Eythor Ingolfsson Melsted – 2nd WSM Appearance
  • Adam Bishop – Britain’s Strongest Man 2020 & 6th Place WSM 2020
  • Konstantine Janashia – 4th Place WSM 2016
  • Luke Stoltman – Europe’s Strongest Man 2021
  • Bobby Thompson – 2nd WSM Appearance

Those are the 10 athletes. Only one can win. I have my personal pick, Tom Stoltman, but if watching strongman for all these years has taught me anything; my predictions rarely mean a damn!!!

Event 1 – Giant’s Medley

Time to kick off the finals with the Giant’s Medley. Last year, this opening event cost Tom Stoltman the title. Will he make the same mistake again? Only time will tell. Up first is Trey Mitchell III and Adam Bishop. Should be a good event for both men, and well, everyone. Bishop gets off to the faster start, and keeps it up, finishing the course before Mitchell can get going on the frame! Mitchell struggles a little, but does indeed finish the course, but in DOUBLE the time it took Bish! Thompson against Boudreault next, and I’d think Thompson would be the better of the two. A very good time for Bobby, but not good enough to beat Bish, while Boudreault struggled on the yoke but made up some time on the frame, finishing just over 30 seconds. Still a good result! Janashia and Melsted are up next. Janashia is the one I’d pick out of the two, but as we saw in the heats, I clearly have no idea what Melsted is capable of. Janashia is extremely fast, and finishes even quicker than Bishop while Melsted doesn’t even manage to get off the starting line with the frame. Only 4 men left, and I’m not sure any of them can beat that incredible time of Janashia! Trying to better the time first is Like against… Tom! A great start from them, with Like slightly ahead of Tom, but stumbles with the frame, allowing younger brother to get ahead and get the best time so far! Luke, even with a stumble, is currently in 3rd place less than a second behind Janashia I believe! If only he didn’t make that one mistake. Finally, we have JF Caron and the 4 time former WSM Brian Shaw. A messy event from these two, with some stumbles and slides, but they still manage good times to beat out Bishop, and Shaw manages to best Luke Stoltman for 3rd place.

Event 2 – Titan’s Turntable

A new event for this year’s final, so honestly its hard to predict any real outcome! Melsted was up first and finished in 52.83 seconds to set a time for the rest of the athletes to try and beat. Mitchell was next, only just beating him with a time of 52.34 seconds. Boudreault has been and gone, finishing in just over 55 seconds, followed by Thompson in over 1 minute. Bishop did slightly better than Thompson in 57.78, but a slow time compared to the others, while Caron was just outside of that time with 57.84 seconds. He injured his hamstring in the first event though, so that had to be a very brutal event for him. Luke Stoltman finished in 55.94 seconds. We just have 3 men left, and up first is Brian Shaw. Even he is unable to best Mitchell, and in fact falls behind a couple of other men finishing in a time of 56.73 seconds. He’ll be disappointed with that. Janashia now, and while he doesn’t have the size of Shaw, he is younger and faster, and that might work to his advantage. Again, he hasn’t beat Mitchell, and doesn’t even manage better than Shaw when he finishes in 1 minute. What a challenge this event is turning out to be! Only Tom Stoltman remains. He’s off to a good start, but it remains to be seen if he can keep up this speed before tiring out. The answer? NOT A CHANCE! A 2nd event win in a row in a time of 46.89 seconds!!!

Event 3 – Keg Toss for Height

One keg. One bar. Multiple heights. Simple throw the keg over the bar, and when you do… the height increases until you can’t throw it any higher! Brian Shaw and Tom Stoltman have to be the favourites for this event due to their height, especially Shaw who broke the world record the last time this event was in the finals. We join in on the action with 4 men remaining, and all 4 have BROKEN the old world record! Tom, Maxime, Brian and Konstantine have all managed 7.26m! Round 4 and 7.5m, and Janashia is unable to get the keg over. Next up to attempt this new height is Brian Shaw, and he’ll want to re-gain the WR, but his first throw is, frankly, awful! Not something we’d expect from Shaw, especially when his second throw is perfect, and the world record is back to being his and his alone… unless Maxime or Tom can match it. Boudreault being in this position is impressive, I wonder how much further he can go. Based on his first throw… a LOT more! Very, very impressive! The pressure is on the competition leader now. His first throw is like Brian’s first throw, and his second throw isn’t as good, but still makes it over. Not sure he’ll be able to make the next height. Round 5, and its 7.75m. Shaw is up first and again, wants his world record all to himself, and he gets it! Really wishing Thor was still competing as well for a true battle! Boudreault is next, but his first throw isn’t good enough. He has 2 more attempts. 2nd one is way off. We saw that he has the ability to do it, and he does indeed get the height on his 3rd throw, but its too far out and by the time it gets to the bar it has already begun to fall. He’s out. Only Tom is left. First throw almost makes it, 2nd throw misses. Final throw like Boudreault gets the height but not the distance. Shaw takes the win and the WR!

With 3 events done, lets have a look at the scores!

Tom is still on top, with a good 5 and a half point lead over Shaw. Shaw looking better than he has in years now. Luke Stoltman is still in the mix, but probably expected to be higher up at this point. JF Caron not doing as well as I hoped, though he is currently working through an injury. Sadly I don’t see him making the podium at this point.

Event 4 – Log Lift

This event will certainly help Luke Stoltman climb the leader board! We join the action during round 3, with a weight of 195KG. Adam Bishop is currently bottom of the pile, having only managed the opening weight of 170KG. Melsted took it one further and got 185KG, but that was it for him. 6 men have lifted 195KG, and we join the action with Brian and Tom making their attempts. First up is Tom Stoltman. While his brother is the more well known presser of the two brothers, Tom is no slouch, but after 3 brutal events, and a few good tries, Tom is unable to make the lift. That will send him right now into 8th place. Now for Shaw, who once upon a time was one of the best pressers behind only the likes of Big Z and Eddie Hall. He still looks to be good, as 195KG looks easy! Round 4 is 205KG, and Trey Mitchell III gets a good lift, which is very impressive! Bobby Thompson, the American record holder in this event, also makes it. Now for Luke Stoltman, the British record holder in the log. Rolls it up the chest like it was nothing, and presses it out pretty easily! Janashia takes his turn, almost gets it, but decides against a second attempt. Boudreault now, to reach a new Canadian record… and he gets it! He almost passes out afterwards, showing how much effort it took! Brian Shaw looking to equal his personal best, and put even more points between him and Tom. First lift doesn’t make it, and his second attempt isn’t any better. Oh hey, its BIG Z! He’s being interviewed, and its clear that this took place BEFORE Iron Biby broke the record. Round 5 now, and the weight is 215KG. Very, very few men in strongman history has done this weight, and sadly for Trey Mitchell III, he isn’t added to that list. Nothing to be ashamed of though! Bobby Thompson IS one of the men who has lifted this kind of weight, holding the American record at 217KG. But after 3 events and in this heat, it might be too much for him. He puts in an INCREDIBLE effort, so close to locking out, but can’t get it, and he passes out afterwards. Last up is Luke Stoltman, another man who has lifted more than this weight in the past. So easy up to the chest, and wow, so easy overhead too! Luke Stoltman with an incredible event win!!!

Event 5 – Dead Lift

350KG for reps, however its 2 massive toolboxes on either end of the bar, making each lift unstable. Adam Bishop has been having a poor competition so far, but he has the chance to redeem himself here. He and Melsted went first, getting 10 and 7 reps respectively. That 10 might be the winning number… then again JF Caron is up now against Tom, and despite the injury, Caron is one of the best deadlifters of all time. Tom isn’t the best for reps, but he knows he needs a good result to maintain his lead overall going into the final event. Tom gets 8 reps, which is VERY good for him, while Caron keeps grinding them out and equals Bish with 10. Fantastic effort from them both. Janashia and Shaw go head to head next. Shaw, again, in his prime was one of the best deadlifters on the planet. Even now he has every chance to win this event. Janashia is also good, and both men have reached 8 reps so far with 10 seconds to go. Shaw grinds out a 9th to push Stoltman back, but Janashia can only equal the Scot. Mitchell and Thompson take their turn next, and hopefully their efforts on the log press won’t effect them too much here. Both men are on 9 reps, but its Mitchell who manages to go ahead and get 10 reps, almost getting 11 but the time runs out before he locks out. Getting worse and worse for Tom Stoltman, unfortunately. Lastly its Luke Stoltman and Maxime Boudrealt. Neither are that great at this, which will definitely help Tom out a little as he doesn’t need to be behind another 2 men. 6 and 3 reps respectively for them.

With just 1 event left to determine the WSM of 2021, lets check on the scores.

1 point now separates Tom Stoltman and Brian Shaw. Mitchell and Luke are battling it out for that 3rd place finish, though Maxime, Konstantine and JF could still take the podium depending on the results of the final event.

Event 6 – Atlas Stones

What better event is there to decide the WSM? Tom is the world record holder in this event, so it obviously favours him tremendously. But as we saw in the Giants Live competitions, even he can make a mistake on this event. Brian Shaw has previously won WSM on this event, and he might be able to do so once again. Luke Stoltman has to be feeling confident here too, knowing how good he is at this event, and how a good result will ensure a podium finish for him. Melsted went first, getting 4 stones in 33.65 seconds. Bishop and Caron went next, with Caron getting all 5 in 37.17 seconds despite his injury. Great stuff from him. Bish only managed 4. Janashia with 4 as well in a crazy time, but Boudreault beat him by getting all 5 up, and in the fastest time so far. We join in on the action with Luke Stoltman and Trey Mitchell III, and both are amongst the best stone lifters. Luke fumbles on the first 2 stones, and that is not good for him. Mitchell looks to take this easily, but the final stone almost proves too much for him. However, Luke is having major issues, and can’t even manage the 5th stone. There goes his podium finish, unfortunately, and if he’s not careful, he might be out of the top 5. Heartbreaking for him. It all comes down to this though. Shaw Vs Stoltman. First Scottish WSM, or second ever 5 time WSM? We will find out! Both are going very fast, but its Tom going ahead, and YES! He’s done it!!! All 5 stones ahead of Shaw, and Tom Stoltman is bringing the title home to Scotland!!!

And there we have it! Tom Stoltman of Scotland, the 2021 World’s Strongest Man!!! Brian Shaw with a fantastic 2nd place, narrowly missing out on that 5th title, but looking better than he has in years. Maxime Boudreault making his first podium, replacing JF Caron as the top Canadian for this year! An incredible competition!!!

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