With two days to go until the curtain rises for the World’s Strongest Man Experience in Hämeenlinna, Finland, event promoter Jyrki Rantanen filed this report with IronMind, including the weights event by event.


WSM Experience Update

by Jyrki Rantanen

Just two more days to until the WSM Experience (King of the Castle) is in action, the preparations have gone smoothly and some last works are done today and tomorrow until the athletes arrive.  On Friday evening we will do a small sightseeing tour in Hämeenlinna attractions like Aulanko city park along with the competition venue Hämeenlinna Medieval Castle  and after special "King of the Castle" menu it will be time for good rest before the competition starts on Saturday afternoon.

To salute the history of the venue, the men will have old cannon replica along with some "medieval people" in arm-over-arm and the log lift for max is done in the old cannon tower, where the competitors are down the ground level in and the spectators are standing almost 10 meters above in the viewing platform—this is kind of miniature "colosseum".

Weights: some might thing that around 130-kg farmer’s walk and 90–130/150-kg sacks we use in the first events are too light for this level, but we have another perspective: the strongest will win anyway and we want to have the guys warmed-up really well to avoid any injuries in the final events, which are including log lift max and deadlift with maybe with the heaviest car ever used in international competition—a Volkswagen Caddy (and if the starting weight is not enough, we are adding extra 20-30 kg in each rep, so it´s reps to max).  The last, but not the least is the Atlas stones, which also are done the hard way (maybe the hardest ever used due the heavy stones are carried also): 8 stones, ranging from 110-180 kg, all carried out from 3 meters distance and loaded over an approximately 1.30 meters high bar for a total of 1160 kg of stones within the 2-minute time limit.

On the prizes, on top of the traditional money, etc. prizes, the  top 3 will get something different than usual: the trophies are valuable plates designed by the world famous finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala and they are made of noble steel.  And to support equality, our top 3 ladies are getting similar plates also for their class.

In the Queen competition we are also using some medium-heavy equipment like 105-kg farmer’s walk, 70-kg log etc. to use this competition as similar to our upcoming nationals and United Strongmen® Women´s World Championships, that we get the event weights proper for both competitions.

                                                                       ###

The IronMind Forum: discuss this article, talk strength, get help with your training. 

You can also follow IronMind on Twitter.