Strongman Challenge

Glasshouse Mountains Strongman Challenge III has been run and won.
It was a hot day here in on the Sunshine Coast, and we had a strong showing of nineteen athletes across the four divisions, including a record five women! As always, there were back of house headaches through most of the day which I won’t bore people with, but these were sorted out by the excellent crew of helpers.
Event 1 - Arm over arm pull
WomenThe women pulled “The Joker”, a sweet 57 Chev show car, that those who attended last year will remember. We had a longer rope this year, so the pull was much tougher, with some undulations further down the driveway. Rachael McKenzie was super fast in this event but Jo Roberts was only a moment behind.

1 Rachael McKenzie
2 Jo Roberts
3 Louise Bond
4 Emily Knauth
5 Lisa Wan

U/90The men pulled the Joker as well, with a few burly strongman inside – all three were within .81 of a second, with Mitchell Birch coming out on top.

1 Mitchell Birch
2 Kurt Southam
3 Colin Webb

U/105The middleweights pulled a Claytons Towing truck. The undulations proved telling for many of the competitors, with only Jarrad, Andrew and Ricky making the full distance. Everyone managed to move the truck a little though, ensuring no one zeroed, which was great to see

1 Ricky
2 Jarrad, Andrew R
4 AJ
5 Andrew H
6 Benton, Shayde
8 Michel

OpenDespite the troubles the middleweights had, the big men insisted on loading the Joker onto the tray of the towtruck for an extra challenge. All showed guts efforts, with Rob pulling it all bar a few inches

1 Rob
2 Scott
3 Jason
Event 2 - Overhead for reps
Women – 35kg barbellAwesome work by the girls, with Lisa Wan smashing out 21 power snatches like a machine, Louise Bond clean and pressing 20 and Rachael McKenzie dominating with an amazing 26 reps!

1 Rachael
2 Lisa
3 Louise
4 Jo
5 Emily

U/90A tough one for the lightweights with a 90kg log but Colin Webb showed his pressing power with four reps

1 Colin
2 Kurt
3 Mitchell

U/105The 100kg log proved too much for some with four competitors zeroing, but Jarrad Gaudern (5 reps) and Ricky Sciascia (6 reps) showed the way

1 Ricky
2 Jarrad
3 Andrew R
4 Andrew H
0 Michel, Benton, AJ, Shayde

OpenAll three men showed serious pressing power on the 110kg log, with Rob and Scott sharing the honours with 5 reps each

1 Rob, Scott
3 Jason
Event 3 – Farmers Walk and tyre flip medley
Women – 60kg farmers + 100kg tyre 7 flipsGreat work by all the women with Rachael and Jo neck and neck again, with Rachael just beating Jo by a second. After bruising her thumb badly on the overheads, Lisa show true grit by completing this tough event in third place

1 Rachael
2 Jo
3 Lisa
4 Emily
5 Louise

U/90

It was supposed to be 100kg per hand but was misloaded to 80kg, so some blistering fast time by these three men, with a little over three seconds separating them. All men used the 250kg tyre

1 Colin
2 Kurt
3 Mitchell

U/105The farmers walk section needed to be competed to score points, and unfortunately this was too hard for three of the men with a 110kg per hand farmers walk. Ricky Sciascia dominated the field by over ten seconds.

1 Ricky
2 Andrew R
3 Jarrad
4 Andrew H
5 Shayde
0 Michel, Benton, AJ

OpenAll three completed the 120kg and seven tyre flips, with Rob’s super fast time of 53.25 good enough for the win

1 Rob
2 Jason
3 Scott
Event 4 – Deadlift for max

Amazingly, the lowest opening weight weight was 90kg, with seven people coming in over 230kg!
Highlights in the women were both Jo and Lisa hitting 140kg and Rachael dominating 160kg

Women1 Rachael
2 Jo, Lisa
4 Louise
5 Emily

U/90Highlights were Colin Webb smashing an awesome 275kg and Kurt setting a PB 250kg
1 Colin
2 Kurt
3 Mitchell

U/105 A huge pull of 275kg secured the win in this event for Andrew Roberts, with most guys maxing out around the 230-250kg mark

1 Andrew R
2 Jarrad, Shayde, Ricky
5 Andrew H
6 AJ
7 Benton
8 Michel

OpenRob Kilpatrick showed with class with an effortless 300kg pull on a bar which had broken under the strain of previous lifts. Rob was forced to miss a third pull which would probably have been in the stratosphere somewhere!

1 Rob
2 Scott
3 Jason
Overall
Women1 Rachael MacKenzie 20
2 Jo Roberts 13.5
3 Lisa Wan 11.5
4 Louise Bond 9
5 Emily Knauth 6

Under 901 Colin Webb 8 (on countback)
2 Kurt Southam 8
3 Mitchell Birch

Under 1051 Ricky SciaScia 30
2 Andrew Roberts 27.5
3 Jarrad Gaudern 25.5
4 Andrew Hale 18
5 Shayde Clarke 12.5
6 AJ Kirkcaldie 8
7 Benton Thistlewaite 4.5
8 Michel George 2

Heavyweights1 Robert Kilpatrick 11.5
2 Scott Jones 7.5
3 Jason Gillespie 5

Huge thanks of course to sponsors Nu Force, Underground Elite, Redback, Floating Point App Design, Nicola Brander photography and of course Fitness Plus. Thanks so much for Referees Matt Aichholzer and Sue Metcalf, and helpers Marc, Bec, Rob and Yan. Thanks muchly to Jason Suna, Sam and the Fitness plus crew.

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, and hopefully will see you all again for GMSC IV in late 2013!