World’s Strongest Man: 1991 and 1992

As well as the box set of the 1980’s World’s Strongest Man finals, I was fortunate enough to receive the box set of the 1990’s for my birthday in January.  I’ve been working my way through them on the odd evening that I get home in time to do more than pay a visit to my garage gym and then hit the sack.  So I’ve done a few reviews of the episodes but before I get to them, here are a few pointers and resources…

Strongman resources

I have posted about strongman before and I often have links to useful sites.  If you’re interested, check out my top 10 website resources for strongman.  I also love watching World’s Strongest Man on television – it’s probably the highlight of my televiewing year – and I enjoy using strongman equipment in my workouts, especially when the weather is nice and I can use the garden.  And not only has it been an enjoyable experience for me, training wise, it’s produced some fun blog posts too, including:

• how to make simple farmers’ walk bars;
• how to make (more complicated) farmer’s walk bars;
• how to make a cheap sandbag;
• training with sandbags (lifting and loading);
• how to make a fat bar (for axle deadlifts, cleans and presses).

However, please note that I don’t compete and I don’t profess to any inside knowledge.  That aside, I hope you enjoy this article.  If you want to buy the DVD, you can find it here.

 1991 Tenerife (Winner: Magnus Ver Magnusson)

This was the first competition for both Magnus Ver Magnusson and Manfred Hoeberl.  The previous year (1990), Jon Pall Sigmarsson had taken the prize but an injury stopped him competing in 1991.  It is safe to say that while everyone expected Magnus to do well, not everyone expected Magnus to win…

Jamie Reeves was commentating and it was good to hear from him again after his win in 1989.  Ilkka Nummisto, a popular and experienced competitor in both 1990 and 1992, appeared as Markku Suonenvirta’s coach.  

• Truck loading – for this event, six objects weighing 100kg had to be loaded onto a platform.  The objects all weighed the same but they were all different and awkward sizes.  Manfred Hoeberl went off like a rocket and blew up spectacularly.  Watching Ted Van Der Parre and O D Wilson loading the weights made me smile as they were so huge that even these huge objects looked like toys in their arms.   Gary Taylor went off against Magnus Ver Magnusson and they stayed neck and neck until the last object when Gary dropped the keg and couldn’t get it onto the platform.  Magnus took the win.
• Overhead keg lift – Gary Taylor snatched the 110kg (255lbs) keg and won over the crowd over but the 120kg (265lbs) was beyond him and all of the others except O D Wilson and Magnus Ver Magnusson.  They both managed 125kg (275lbs) without too much difficulty and then Ver Magnusson pressed the 130kg (285lbs), which O D Wilson could not do.   
• Truck pull – the DAF truck pull didn’t make it too pole position this year as it was the last event of the first day.  Magnus Ver Magnusson and O D Wilson went head to head and battled it out.  It wasn’t enough to win though as Henning Thorsen had an absolutely storming performance to win  
• Silver dollar deadlift – the traditional 18” deadlift was carried out with rocks rather than dollars but in the thin air of Mount Teidi it couldn’t have been easy.  Very few of the competitors managed to get further than 380kg (836lbs).  O D Wilson bombed out at 400kg (880lbs), as did Henning Thorsen.  Gary Taylor took (880lbs) 400kg and 410kg (902lbs) easily but Magnus Ver Magnusson took 420kg (924lbs) to win.
• Sandbag carry and trolley push – the competitors ran with a sandbag down the field and then pushed a trolley back.  Gary Taylor performed brilliantly to take the win ahead of Magnus Ver Magnusson.  It’s a strange event, though, because steering seemed to be more important than strength.
• Straight-arm hold – also called the crucifix, this year the hold was with bunches of bananas.  Gary Taylor did very well but Magnus just managed to pip him to the post.  Even so, Markku Suonenvirta, going last, won the event.  
• McGlashan stones – For the McGlashan stones event, the competitors had to lift five stones of increasing weight onto five kegs of increasing heights.  Gregg Ernst, the Canadian National Strongman, lifted the final (heaviest) stone onto the final (highest) keg easily.  Gary Taylor went off a bit fast and blew up on the last stone.  But as he noted, he was too small to stand a good chance of getting the last stone on the keg because of his short arms and high keg.  Magnus Ver Magnusson, perhaps unsurprisingly, did not lift the final stone.  Henning Thorsen surprised everyone by matching Gregg Ernst in lifting the final stone but his time was faster and he took the win.    
• Boat pull –For this event, the competitors had to pull a boat up a ramp.  Gary Taylor set a great time but Henning Thorsen was still faster and won.  Magnus Ver Magnusson perhaps did not have the motivation to chase them as he was already the winner by this point.  Even so, his technique seemed a little off as he wasn’t using his legs.

In summary, this episode is a good watch with some great characters.  Manfred Hoeberl is always fun to watch and Gregg Ernst no less so but in a very different way.  Henning Thorsen was very determined, Gary Taylor laid his emotions bare over his earlier poor performances and later sucesses and, of course, Magnus Ver Magnusson is a very likeable and magnanimous winner.

1992 Reykjavik (Winner: Ted Van Der Parre)

This will always be remembered by the fans as the year that Magnus Ver Magnusson really wanted to win and didn’t.  Everyone talks about how Magnus wanted to win in front of his home crowd but, on the final event, he dropped the Husafel stone while trying to get a better grip.  In fact, I think that the real picture is a bit more complicated, as you’ll see below.

• Truck pull – with the new sponsor, Tonka Toys, on board, the truck pull is back at the front of the listing, with the competitors pulling huge yellow dump trucks.  Once again, though, the organisers weren’t capable of sorting out two similar trucks and the right hand lane was clearly far harder than the left.  As a result, very few people finished in that lane.  A more significant mistake occurred when the truck ran over the starting block in Ted Van Der Parre’s attempt and he was dragged backwards.  Luckily, the officials made things good by giving everyone a go in each lane and Ted received another chance at the bad lane, only to come first over all.
• Wheelbarrow deadlift – the weight was created not by silver dollars this year but by milk churns.  As would become typical for him in future years, newcomer Gerrit Badenhorst was clearly very strong here, as was Magnus Ver Magnusson.  Gerrit lifted 465kg (1,023lbs) to win as Magnus failed twice to achieve the same lift, one of the few times I have seen him fail at a lift.
• Barrel loading – the barrel loading was made very unpleasant by the placing of the barrels in the water and the fact that they contained water, which made them very difficult and unpredictable to handle.  Jamie Reeves took a spill into the water and Gary had a torrid time with grip issues, which might have been caused by his gloves but then he never excels at loading because of his height.  Apart from Magnus Ver Magnusson, who won, all the best times came from tortoise approaches, which maintained slow and steady progress and didn’t make any mistakes.  The hares started well but, as exhaustion set in, the barrels were just too awkward and slippery to manage.
• Overhead stone lifting – as it says on the tin, this event was lifting a stone above the head, with the massive glacial waterfalls behind them in the background.  Magnus Ver Magnusson, Jamie Reeves and Gerrit Badenhorst all pressed 120kg (265lbs) overhead.  Jamie looked strongest, with his press looking as easy as Kazmaier at his best.  Magnus set a new world record with 125kg (275lbs) and Gerrit couldn’t stabilise the rock.  Jamie lifted 130kg (285lbs) easily and locked out but the referee did not pass it for reasons that were not made clear.  Magnus was therefore awarded the win.
• Thor’s hammer – Ted Van Der Parre pushed everyone hard on this event, with his throws being well over the bar each time while everyone else was scraping over.  Perhaps being a foot closer to the bar helped.  Jamie Reeves and Gary Taylor managed to stay with him until the final height but ultimately Ted took the win, with Jamie and Gary taking second and third. 
•  Axe holding – the Icelandic axe was the object to be held at arm’s length this year, with a staggered grip.  Gerrit Badenhorst achieved a great time, Jamie Reeves was better but Gary Taylor was better still, which suggests that overhead pressing strength is the key to this event.  Ted Van Der Parre won but whether his arms were in the correct position on this event is debatable. 
• Aeroplane rope pull – the hand-over-hand pull this year was an aeroplane, which despite being a small plane must have been the heaviest weight that had been used to date.  Jamie Reeves had a bad event again, when the plane’s wheel got stuck on a camera cable.  He was granted a second chance but tiredness took its toll and he wasn’t able to improve significantly.  Ted Van Der Parre set a good time but Magnus Ver Magnusson was faster and won.  After this event, Ted and Magnus drew with 56 points each and Jamie was in third with 53 points.
• Husafel stone – the Husafel stone weighs 410lbs (186kg).  The competitors carried it at chest height for distance.  The noise from the crowd was deafening.  Gregg Ernst set a new world record with an amazing performance.  Gary got a good distance but he fought for every single step.  Jon Pall Sigmarsson gave some tips to Jamie Reeves, being to take off the shirt (for the stone to stick), to keep the stone high and to take small steps.  Jamie rocked up to the shirt with his bare chest completely covered in white chalk.  He put the stone so high he couldn’t even see where he was going and went a very long way.  Magnus Ver Magnusson’s grip faltered and he dropped the stone just short of Jamie’s mark.  Ted knew exactly what he needed and used the worst technique ever to stroll past Magnus’s mark to take the win.          

In summary, a great competition because of three very equal competitors at the top end, but no thanks to the organisers who made some pretty big blunders, both with the equipment and with the refereeing.  Ted Van Der Parre came first overall.  Magnus Ver Magnusson and Jamie Reeves tied for second.  It was very tight at the top.

Ted was clearly not undeserving of his win but it is worth noting that if Jamie had been awarded his win for the overhead rock lift and Ted had been penalised for his dodgy technique on the axe hold then the points were so close that this line-up might have looked very different.

I write a post every day so don’t forget to subscribe or you’ll miss out