MM5 British Natural Strongman Recap

August 9, 2009 marked the first Drug tested British strongman contest held at monster gym in cheshunt. The inaugural event entertained twenty one competitors from around the British isles with many venturing down from the northern most reaches of England and a few from Scotland to undertake the task of trying to win the title of Britain’s strongest natural competitor.

The twenty two who lined up included been france, gordon fairey, dennis robinson, jack Lovett, craig riddell, rob hawxby, graham baldridge, bartosz wisniewski, scott taggart, phillip angell-manning, adam vessey, andy smiles, joseph Gorton, kenny cardwell, adam hales, andy venables, daniel milverton, matt lamport, pete seddon, glen kerr and Phil Learney.

Some competitors where novice strongmen others experienced strength athletes , champion bodybuilders and British athletic team members so the standard would throw up a few surprises in many of the events.

The first event was the farmers walk using a frame apparatus loaded to 100kg per hand raced over twenty metres. Only one competitor was unable to complete the distance and many where fast considering many had never used such an implement even those who had competed before.

The event was won by been france closely followed by Spartan performance gyms jack lovett and pete seddon coming in third. It was obvious to many of the judges that it was hundredths of a second which split many competitors and with the clock only stopping after the apparatus touched the ground after the line it was clear many lost time in grounding the implement and with only the top ten scoring this would dent some peoples chances throughout this competition.

Next up was a tyre flip for max reps in seventy five seconds using a 675lb tyre. Many of the competitors where eating up the task as many where hitting double figures as it became a challenge of explosive power combined with muscular endurance. In the end the leisurely looking pace of jack lovett seemed to work as he completed fifteen flips almost making the event look easy. Joe Gorton was in second with fourteen reps and glenn kerr, phil Learney and scott taggart tied for third sharing the points, the sharing of the points continued within the top ten and probably at this stage dented some placings going into the third event.

After an interval the next event was a raising weight log press, each competitor got the chance to press the empty log to register a weight and after that three raising weights of their choice where attempted, any failure to press the weight resulted in them being out of the competition with their last pressed weight counting as their score. This system seemed to make every want to play safe and stick with weights which although challenging where within their limits and resulted in many athletes clustered together and again sharing the points due to tied places. Bartosz winiewski won the event with three distinct groups behind him pressing 105kg, 100kg and 95kg respectively. Their was slight drama as jack lovett stalled with the weight resting on his head before completing the press but the head judge deemed it ok.

The fourth event was an axle deadlift with a three inch diameter fat bar loaded to 180kg pulled from about ten inches of the ground. Once again many of the athletes where repping into double figures with this weight and grip wasn’t an issue due to the thick knurling on the bar which Phil Learney can attest to as he it tore through his palm and required strapping before the next event. In the end the event was won by joe Gorton with nineteen reps, second place was phil learney, glenn kerr and jack lovett all sharing the points from second to fourth and been france came fifth.

The final event was the carry medley with three implements to be carried over a twenty metre course in relay. Of the three implements the singled cylinder farmers walk implement caused the greatest difficulty with a variety of techniques chosen to carry the implement, some favoured duck walking it, been france was the sole competitor who suit case carried it but in general the technique of carrying it zercher style up away from the legs appeared to allow the greatest speed. Once again jack lovett took the event event followed by been france who snatched second within hundredths of a second of joe Gorton in their head to head race. Fourth was rob hawxby followed by phil Learney in fifth.

In the final overall standings jack lovett took the event with a clear lead followed by been france in second, phil Learney in third, joe Gorton in fourth and scott taggart in fifth.

For an inaugural event there was great support from spectators. The event could not have taken place without the sponsorship by MM5 the newest nutrition product to be released from monster muscle ltd. The sponsorship ensured activites for the day from the kids activities to the PA system where covered as well as paying for the drug testing (which everyone passed). Being the first yea lessons where learnt which will be improved upon for next year when there will be two qualifiers and weight divisions.

Source - www.bodybuilderdiet.co.uk

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