Showing the confidence you would expect from the defending WSM champion, Mariusz Pudzianowski only needed 12 reps to win the deadlift in his heat today, so why did he do 17?

"Because I can," he said, not wanting to give up any psychological ground since Mark Felix had already knocked off 17 reps in group three. Mariusz might have equalled Mark on reps, but from the look of things, while Mark had plenty of gas left in the tank, Mariusz might have already gone the distance.

Phil Pfister's world record time in the Fingal's Fingers was reported as 32.44 and Sebastian Wenta clocked an impressive 36.30 followed by Jesse Marunde's 37.87 seconds. In group four, Jarek Dymek continues to rally and he won the deadlift in his heat today, group four, by pulling 14 reps.

Magnus Samuelsson "is struggling with his back," and did not begin the deadlift and got through Fingal's Fingers in 40.23 seconds, but as a veteran competitor said, "When you have an injury, you lose the fire to compete." Darren Sadler, who is said to weigh about 110 kg and was described as being "the shortest guy here," is said to be producing "unbelievable performances for a guy his size."

The weather was a little cooler today . . . Tomorrow brings the third day of the qualifying round at the 2006 MET-Rx World's Strongest Man competition, so stay tuned.