Amid the swirling rumors, IronMind® has just received official confirmation of the dates, location and contest format for the 2005 World's Strongest Man competition.

This year's contest is in Chengdu, China with the qualifier scheduled for September 27 - 30 and the finals scheduled for October 4 - 7.

"We are going back to the usual format of five groups, although this year we will have five athletes in each group, with the top two going through to the final," said TWI Event Manager Lisa Comber, which is news that will likely be very well received by both the competitors and the fans of this leading event in the strongman world.