"It was pretty cool," Magnus Ver Magnusson said.

Describing the amphitheater-type setting that had been created in the Alcan warehouse by rearranging the aluminum blocks waiting to be shipped, he could also have been describing the temperature, because the warehouse hosting the qualifying round of the IFSA World Championships wasn't heated and the temperature was estimated to be about -9 degrees Celsius (about 15 degrees Fahrenheit). This "shouldn't be a problem for tough guys," Magnus Ver said, "unless they don't make them like they used to."

Koklyaev, Best, Benedict Magnusson and Brusokas qualified from the first heat. Savikas, Murumets, Blekaitis, and Thompson qualified from the second heat. Virastyuk, Ortmayer, Szczepanski and Katana qualified from the third heat.

IFSA world records were broken in the farmer's walk (Best), overhead block/stone lift (Savickas) and the Atlas Stones - where the record first fell to Savickas, only to be rebroken by Solvi, and then out came Ortmayer, who blistered the event, breaking the record for the third and final time today.