Along with the chance to try out the Rolling Thunder, Apollon’s Axle and CoC Silver Bullet at the Nordic Fitness Expo, there were also two grip contests: the Grip Strength European Championships, organized by GripMonsters, and the Rautakoura Finnish Nationals, organized by Kimmo Kokko.

On paper, the GripMonster Grip Strength European Championships appeared to be a two-man race featuring Timo Tuukkanen (CoC-3, ’09) ) and Juha Harju (CoC-3, ’08 and a former world record holder on the CoC Silver Bullet), and that’s the way things ended up:

Results
Timo Tuukkanen (Finland) 6 points
Juha Harju (Finland) 8 points
Jouni Pakarinen (Finland) 13 points
Matti Harju (Finland) 15.5 points
Pasi Mehtälä (Finland) 17.5 points

Over on another stage, Kimmo Kokko, who is known as the father of Finnish interest in grip strength because he has been organizing grip contests since the late 1990s, ran another competition.

“Kimmo Kokko's Rautakoura (Ironhand) is a traditional timed hold event, where the athlete holds 2x75 ‘farmer’s weights’ on the air with one arm as long as possible.  Kimmo has educated Finnish people on grip events since late '90s and this national championships is the yearly tradition at the expo,” Jyrki Rantanen told IronMind.

Results
Rautakoura 1x150kg:
1) Richard Karu 1.23 (WR)
2) Sami Pätäri 0.36
3) Juha Lehtimäki 0.24

Men over 40:
1) Eero Salo 0.44 (M65SE)
2) Jouni Pakarinen 0.37
3) Jarmo Meriä 0.24

Men under 23:
1) Simmo Sahk 0.13

Women:
1) Jaana Tanner 0.10
2) Ida Pohjanlehto

Crowd event - the scale press:
1) Jouni Pakarinen 204kg
2) Niko Vesterinen 179kg
3) Jussi Höglund 171kg

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