The Strongman Champions League is coming to Limerick on June 5th and 6th 2010. Ricardo Guglielminotti travelled to the US for the Arnold Strongman Classic in advance of the Irish Competition.
Due to the popularity of the sport of Strongman and just months ahead of the biggest Strongman competition to arrive on Irish shores, I set off to the USA to attend the heaviest competition in the world. It’s Saturday the 6th of March and I’m at the Arnold Schwarzenegger Classic in Columbus, Ohio. It’s the 22nd year of the event but only the 8th year that it has included the Arnold Strongman Classic. Featuring many top names in Strongman sport, it promises to be an exciting weekend culminating in the awarding of the most prestigious prize in the sport of Strongman, The Louis Cyr Trophy.
Over the course of the competition, the challenges set out by Governor Schwarzenegger included a 209 kg axle to be pressed over head and a 242 kg atlas stone to be lifted over a shoulder high bar. Saturday saw a world record set by Derek Poundstone, when he cleaned and pressed a 103 kg dumbbell over head for 11 reps. The event that followed was one a lot of people would be familiar with, the Deadlift. Zydrunas Savickas, the current Worlds Strongest Man title holder, won the event with a weight of 467 kg.
The final event took place later that night. This challenge required a 456 kg frame, made out of railway track sleepers and steel, to be picked up by both hands and carried up an incline ramp. The winner of the event would be the man to carry it up in the quickest time. Another world record was set by Derek Poundstone with a time of 9.28 seconds. This result helped him to win the competition overall. 2nd place went to Zydrunas Savickas and 3rd to Travis Ortmayer. Both these men will join the line-up of 16 international competitors who will descend upon Ireland in June of this year for the Strongman Champions League in conjunction with Sports Expo Ireland. The event will be held in Limerick and includes two of Irelands strongest men, James Fennelly and Dave Warner. For more information on SCL Ireland visit www.scllimerick.com
by Ricardo Guglielminotti