TWI has just released the official information on the heats for the 2006 MET-Rx World's Strongest Man contest, so review the start list and place your bets.

Group 1: Boris Haraldsson (Iceland), Arild Haugen (Norway), Jessen Paulin (Canada), Don Pope (USA), Mariusz Pudzianowski (Poland)

Group 2: Terry Hollands (UK), Jesse Marunde (USA), Dave Ostlund (USA), Raivis Vidzis (Latvia), TBD (China)

Group 3: Mark Felix (Grenada), Elbrus Nigmatullin (Russia), Phil Pfister (USA), Darren Sadler (UK), Janne Virtanen (Finland)

Group 4: Jarek Dymek (Poland), Dominic Filiou (Canada), Mohammad Gharaei (Iran), Tarmo Mitt (Estonia), Kevin Nee (USA)

Group 5: Magnus Samuelsson (Sweden), Josh Thigpen (USA), Slawomir Toczek (Poland), Sebastian Wenta (Poland), TBD (Norway).

Reserves: Odd Haugen (Norway), Karl Gillingham (USA)

As ever, it should be remembered that these groups are subject to change.

The 2006 MET-Rx World's Strongest Man contest will be in Sanya, China and the filming schedule calls for the qualification rounds to run September 14 - 17, with the top two competitors from each heat advancing to the finals, which are scheduled to run September 21 - 23.

The official World's Strongest Man website contains background information such as athlete profiles as well as details on this year's contest.