The hammer dropped at the 2005 MET-Rx World's Strongest Man qualifiers today as squats and deadlifts were thrown into the mix.

Both the squat and the deadlift advanced from the opening weight as up to six barrels were added to boost the load, ending at 750 pounds in deadlift, and at 794 pounds in the squat. Here are the top two in each group after the second day of the qualifying round:

Group one: Jarek Dymek leads, after having a great day - hitting all seven weights in the deadlift - followed by yesterday's leader, Raivis Vidzis.

Group two: Ralf Ber maintained his lead, but Mark Philippi showed what his legs can do as he moved into second place after squatting all seven weights.

Group three: Everyone might expect to hear that Mariusz Pudzianowski is still in first place, and he is, but he can't coast because Mikael Starow, who made all seven squats, and Steve Bourgeois are pushing him hard.

Group four: Janne Virtanten, who made all seven deadlifts, has stormed to the front, Kevin Nee has moved into second place, and Slawomir Toczek and Dave Ostlund, tied for third, are very close behind, in what is a tightly-bunched group.

Group five: Jesse Marunde has held onto his lead, and Tarmo Mitt and Karl Waitoa are sharing second place.

The quest to make it into the finals continues tomorrow as groups two and five do the Truck Pull, and all five groups do Fingal Fingers.