Europe’s Strongest Man 2025
We found out who the strongest man in Britain was, now to find out the strongest man in Europe!
Nicolas Cambi – Italy – 2023 Italy’s Strongest Man
Pa O’Dwyer – Ireland – 5x Ireland’s Strongest Man
Rauno Heinla – Estonia – 2022 Deadlift World Champion
Paddy Haynes – England – 4th at Britain’s Strongest Man 2025
Ondrej Fojtu – Czech Republic – 4th at Europe’s Strongest Man 2024
Andrew Flynn – England – 3rd at Britain’s Strongest Man 2025
Aivars Smaukstelis – Latvia – 2nd at Europe’s Strongest Man 2024
Mateusz Kieliszkowski – Poland – 2nd at World’s Strongest Man & Arnold Strongman Classic multiple times
Luke Richardson – England – 2020 Europe’s Strongest Man
Gavin Bilton – Wales – 2nd at Britain’s Strongest Man 2024
Pavlo Kordiyaka – Ukraine – 2023 Europe’s Strongest Man
Luke Stoltman – Scotland – 2021 & 2024 Europe’s Strongest Man
An impressive lineup of multiple former champions and the reigning champion, as well as multiple national champions and high podium finishers! Luke is the reigning defending 2x champion, and fresh off winning Britain’s Strongest Man, putting him as a favourite… however… Mateusz Kieliszkowski is BACK. The Polish Terminator is returning to Giants Live for the first time in 6 years due to injures, and he’s looking to get back on top and finally start winning shows. In a similar position is Luke Richardson, who has won this competition way back in 2020, and even after having to withdraw from BSM a few months earlier, he’s back, healthy, and looking to win again. But we cannot forget about Kordiyaka, the winner from 2023, and Paddy Haynes, who was on track to potentially win BSM had it not been for a single bad event with the log lift! Whoever wins this will have to really fight for it!
Event 1 – Press Medley
Well, the first event already doesn’t suit Paddy Haynes, but is a very good event for a lot of other athletes! 4 objects to be pressed overhead twice each; a 90kg dumbbell, 150kg safe, 150 Axle, and finally a 150kg log. Kieliszkowski used to be king of this event, so we’ll have to see how he gets on during his return! Heinla has been and gone, and the deadlift champ is sadly not good at pressing, and he didn’t manage a single rep. Up against him was Paddy Haynes, and he at least got the 2 reps of the dumbbell done, so he won’t get 0 points, but its still a poor showing. He’ll need to eliminate this weakness if he wants to win big shows! Flynn also only managed 2 reps, in a much slower time than Haynes, so that’s a bit of a lifeline to Haynes. Pa almost managed a rep with the safe, but he wasn’t given it, and he too is stuck on 2 reps. Time to join the action now with Bilton going up against Cambi. No issues for either man on the dumbbell, with Cambi just in front. Both men get the safe up twice, and again Cambi is faster. They continue to impress with the Axle, but its slow and steady Bilton who manages 6 reps overall, while Cambi just gets 5! Last year’s runner up Smaukstelis against Fojtu, and Fojtu makes the dumbbell look EASY. In fact he makes EVERYTHING look easy, getting all 8 reps in around 1 minute 5 seconds! Smaukstelis way behind with just the 2 dumbbell reps. Kieliszkowski goes head to head with Richardson in a battle of the returns. Richardson is just ahead of Kieliszkowski going into the final implement, but Kieliszkowski’s amazing power at log pressing allows him to take the lead and finish ahead of even Fojtu who looked much faster overall. Both men get all 8 of course. Finally, its Kordiyaka against Stoltman. Luck goes well, while Kordiyaka struggles on the safe, and just cannot lock it out. Stoltman takes a long time on the Axle, and runs out of time for the log. Not the best result for either man, but very good for everyone’s favourite Polish Terminator!
Event 2 – Shield Walk
Athletes have to lift and carry a 200kg shield as far as they can. Simple! Heinla was out first, managing 29.49m. Then Flynn, who went 51.04m. Cambi walked for only 26.38m, while Bilton went on for 41.12m. Now we join the action with Pa against Paddy! Paddy is off like a rocket, looking to go as fast as possible to make up as much distance as he can before he tires. O’Dwyer was much slower, and he ends up only managing 33m, a disappointment for him. Haynes just keeps going and he is now into WORLD RECORD territory! 89.99m for the Englishman who went almost 25m more than the old record! Smaukstelis and Kordiyaka take their turn now, and this should be good for Pavlo, who will want to make up for a dreadful mistake he made at WSM a couple of years ago where he didn’t cross the line on the turn, and was deducted 20m from his result. He doesn’t break the old record or the new, but does manage 61.84m which will likely land him in good points overall. Smaukstelis only managed 23.12m. Out next, Luke Vs Luke! I can see Richardson doing better here, but we’ll have to wait and see. Yep, Luke Stoltman drops at 47.49m, with 56.10m for Richardson. Lastly, its Fojtu against Kieliszkowski. On paper, this should be good for the Polish Terminator. Just like Hanyes, he’s off like a rocket. Fojtu is slower and makes it to 49.44m, while Kieliszkowski goes a bit further at 56.82m. Not the result he would have wanted, but far from bad. Great result for Haynes though!
Event 3 – Carry & Drag
A 125kg anvil to be carried down a 20m course, then they have to drag an anchor and chain back down the same 20m course! Fitness will play a big part in this, so the likes of Haynes and Kieliszkowski are likely to be favourites once again. 3 men have gone so far; Smaukstelis in a time of 31.15, Heinla in 30.96, and Cambi currently leading with 29.10 seconds. Joining the action we see O’Dwyer, Bilton and Stoltman all going up against each other. O’Dwyer gets off to a flyer with the anvil, and while Stoltman catches him up, O’Dwyer picks up the win here. Bilton is way behind, with the current worst time overall at just around 39 seconds. O’Dwyer with the current best of 27.60s, and Stoltman at 28.19s for current 2nd place. Fojtu, Flynn and Richardson are the next to face off and we could see some fast times here too. They are neck and neck and neck, but Richardson finishes and shatters the time from O’Dwyer! 22.58 seconds! Fojtu a little behind with 25.08s, and Flynn also beats out O’Dwyer with 26.89s! That time from Richardon will be very hard to beat, but the final 3 men are going to give it a go! Kieliszkowski against Kordiyaka against Haynes and this will be a great battle! A small mistake on the Anvil pickup costs Kieliszkowski a second or 2 and as a result… he gets the EXACT same time as Richardson!!!
Only 2 events are left, so lets see the points so far!
Kieliszkowski is back on form, and currently leading… but the next event is his one weakness. Richardson is going well, making up for having to pull out of Britain’s a couple of months prior. Fojtu doing very well, and Haynes has made a good recover following the opening event which was his big weakness. Stoltman, the reigning champion however, is struggling a little, and will need to do a lot to make the podium at this rate. And just after I write this out, we find out that Luke Stoltman has withdrawn from competition, seemingly something went wrong in the previous event. Hopefully its nothing major and he can be back bigger and stronger too!
Event 4 – Axle Deadlift
And here we have the one weakness of the Polish Terminator; the Deadlift. 350kg to be deadlifted as many times as possible in 60 seconds. The world record is 11 reps, but I don’t see anyone coming close to it here. Heinla will at least have a chance here to get a high placing finish though! 5 men have been and gone: Bilton with only 1 rep, a shockingly bad result for him, I can only assume he’s hurting from previous events. Cambi with 3 reps. Flynn also with 3 reps. Kordiyaka with 4 reps. And currently in first place is O’Dwyer with 5 reps. Smaukstelis goes head to head with Heinla. At the halfway point, Heinla already gets 6 reps for current first place, then goes to 7 before taking a break. One more rep, and its 8 for Heinla! Smaukstelis manages 4. Haynes up against Fojtu now, and both men are doing very well early on, with Hanyes getting to 8 reps with 25 seconds left, but he knows he’s out of energy, so he’ll have to tie for 1st place atm. Fojtu finishes with 6. Finally then, its Kieliszkowski and Richardson; one bad deadlifter, and one good deadlifter. The Polish Terminator needs to grind out a few reps to beat out a few men and get some good points. Richardson seems to be struggling way more than expected, and he really struggles to get to just 5. 3 for Kieliszkowski, which is a good result for him. Haynes and Fojtu getting good results here could very well change the podium now!
One event left, so lets have a look at the all important scores!
That event win for Richardson has boosted him into 1st place, with Fojtu bumping up to second as Kieliszkowski’s bad result sends him down to 3rd with a hungry Paddy Haynes hot on his heels! Only 3 of them can make the podium, so who will it be?
Event 5 – Castle Stones
5 stones. 120kg to 200kg Lift them onto platforms. Fastest time. Its classic Strongman! 6 men have been and gone, with only Heinla lifting all 5 so far in a time of 28.44 seconds. With Stoltman and it seems Bilton also out, we have just the final 4 men fighting for those podium positions going next! First up, its Haynes against Kieliszkowski! They are neck and neck going to the 5rh, and its Haynes who gets all 5 up while Kieliszkowski is unable to get that 5th stone up, and that might very well mean the Polish Terminator ends up in 4th place. Last then, its Fojtu Vs Richardson. Fojtu is just a head until the 4th stone, where Richardson catches him, and ends up beating him, AND beating the time set by Haynes, which means Richardson wins Europe’s Strongest Man for a 2nd time! Fojtu is unable to get the 5th stone up, and because he did them slower than Kieliszkowski, it seems he will be off the podium in a bit of a shock!
Well, seems Bilton did compete, they just… never bothered to show us his results. Weird!
And there we have the confirmation; Luke Richardson is once again Europe’s Strongest Man. Paddy Haynes makes second and is able to qualify for the World’s Strongest Man, and Kieliszkowski just edges out Fojtu for a podium finish. Not the result he would have wanted but its a good result and hopefully the Polish Terminator can continue his return and get into even better shape!
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