Two men have already qualified for the WSM 2024 Finals, and now its time for 2 more to join them!
- Mitchell Hooper – Canada – World’s Strongest Man 2023
- Gavin Bilton – Wales – 2nd at Britain’s Strongest Man 2023 & 2024
- Ondrej Fojtu – Czech Republic
- Austin Andrade – Mexico
- Spenser Remick – USA
- Nicolas Cambi – Italy
With Mitchell Hooper here, there is only really 1 spot in the final up for grabs. Gavin Bilton has come close a couple of times now, and after another great showing at Britain’s earlier in the year, he could finally make his first final. However, both Fojtu and Cambi looked impressive in a couple of Giants Live shows, so they could easily be a threat to that spot in the final.
Event 1 – Webster Stones
The Webster Stones are starting things off again; 1 stone is 136kg, and the other is 113kg, and they must be carried as far as the athletes possibly can! Fojtu won a similar event at Europe’s Strongest Man 2024, so he will be a favourite, however you can never count out Mitchell Hooper who is always somehow able to just beat out anyone who comes before him. First 2 men out are Andrade and Remick. Both make the turn at 20m, but its Remick who drops first. Andrade keeps going a little more, finishing with just under 30m. Next out are Bilton and Cambi, and Bilton gets off to a much better start. Cambi has a terrible time, dropping both times before reaching the 20m turn. Bilton does much better, but is unable to beat Andrade or Remick. Lastly, its Hooper Vs Fojtu, and this should be a great battle. Both look very good here, and seemingly decide to stop at 40m and just take equal 1st place to avoid wasting too much energy!
Event 2 – Deadlift Ladder
5 bars ranging from 300kg to 380kg must be lifted in the quickest time. Again, Hooper is the favourite. Cambi did well at this event previously and Bilton, while not the fastest puller, has been known to lift some impressive weights in the past. He needs a big result here for sure, as does Cambi. They are the first 2 out, and while Cambi is the faster on 2, Bilton is able to get the third and fourth much quicker, so it all comes down to if either can manage that 5th rep. The answer is no, so Bilton gets the victory here. Not sure if his time will hold up though. Remick and Andrade battle it out now, and its Andrade who looks to be the better of the two in this event. 4 quick reps for Andrade I believe puts him ahead of Bilton, but that doesn’t matter as he gets the 5th rep anyway! 4 for Remick, but I think a slower time than Bilton which is good for the Welshman, and bad for the American. Hooper and Fojtu are paired up once again, with Hooper much faster, winning this event with a fast 5. Fotju struggles to get 4, but he’s ahead of Bilton for 3rd place.
Event 3 – Sandbag Steeplechase
3 120kg sandbags of different shapes must be loaded onto a platform at the end of a 20m course. However, at the 10m mark, they have to throw the bags over a bar as well! Dare I say it; Hooper is the favourite here. Remick and Cambi go first, with Cambi sadly getting 0 due to injury. Remick manages 5. We join the action with Bilton and Fotju going head to head. Fotju looks great here, going at a much faster speed compared to the Welsh Bull, who sadly seems very tired. So much so, he seems to fall to the ground after throwing the second bag over the bar, hopefully its just exhaustion and not an injury. Fotju manages all 6 in just over 1 minutes. Luckily it is indeed just heat exhaustion, and he’ll be ok. Finally then, its Andrade against Hooper. To the surprise of nobody, Hooper runs away with the event, finishing in around 53 seconds. Andrade runs out of time before he can get the final bag loaded.
With 3 events down, lets check on the points overall:
Hooper is of course on top, having finished 1st in all 3 events so far. Fotju and Andrade will be the ones to battle it out for that second place in the final unless something dramatic happens. Sadly, Bilton has withdrawn from the competition.
Event 4 – Viking Press
150kg to be pressed overhead as many times in 1 minute! Yup, Hooper is the favourite here. Cambi was up first, and despite an arm injury during the previous event, he came out here and blasted through 13 reps! Then Andrade and Remick took their turn, getting 12 and 13 reps respectively. Time to join the action with Hooper against Fotjtu once more. Expect Hooper to get 14 and no more, unless he’s pushed by Ondrej. 14 easy reps for Hooper, and he actually just decides to stop there and let Fojtu go ahead on 15! Hooper obviously knows he is still ahead on points with a great event for him still to come.
Event 5- Car Walk
A 454kg car needs to be lifted and walked down the 20m course in the quickest time! Cambi finished in just over 35 seconds, but was beaten by Remick who took around 20 seconds, and Andrade who was a little slower at 24 seconds. Fojtu and Hooper went last, but both decided to just do a couple of metres, saving energy.
Lets look at the points again to confirm Hooper’s place in the final and the two men who will enter the stone off!
Hooper makes his 3rd straight final, and is looking more than good enough to WIN his second straight final. Fojtu and Andrade will be the two men going into the stone off to try and join him, and with Fojtu having the advantage of lifting second AND barely doing any work in the car walk, I’d say we have a very good chance of seeing the first ever man from the Czech Republic making a WSM final!
Event 6 – Stone Off
Time for Fojtu and Andrade to pass stones over a bar to each other, with the stones slowly going up in weight until they reach a final stone. If they both pass it, they will have to continue with the heaviest stone going back and forth until 1 man is unable to pass it in the 20 second time limit! They both make it to the final stone, so it all comes down to how many passes they can do with the 210kg stone! Despite being the fresher man and having the advantage, he is struggling with each lift. Andrade looks to be the stronger right now, but anything can happen. Sadly for Fojtu, despite being better throughout the heats, he loses out on a place in the final to Andrade. Well deserved for Andrade, but I still hate the stone off as Fojtu was definitely way better than Andrade overall.
Hooper wins the heat and goes through to the final, which was a surprise to nobody. The big surprise was Fojtu not making it, however we now get the first ever finalist from Mexico with Austin Andrade!
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