Hello everyone.

My first competition for this year was on 26th of march. It was the first competition in a series of 4 within finland , also known as ” Finlands strongman cup”. At the end of each of these the best finnish competitor gets an invitation to compete in august at Finnish open competition which is one of the biggest strongman shows in Finland.

This first competition was Turku’s Strongest Man. This competition were one of the toughest competitions in Finland. The weights were world class and there were very good competitors around scandinavia competing here including current reigning Finland’s Strongest man Jarno Kirselä.

The events for this competition were as followed:

Press medley, 120kg axle+140kg log and 2x circus dumbells.

Some thoughts about this competition.

So far my weakness in competition has been my pressing as i am not very good at that. So in the first event i decided to just take it slow and make sure i get the lifts that i need to get some decent points. I ended up lifting the axle and the log in 27,78 seconds which landed me 6 points in the first event. I tried to lift the dumbells but i just didnt have the strenght or technique to be able to lift those. This event was very tough and only 2 competitors managed to lift the dumbells.

In the second event, the yoke race. I knew i could do a good time if i dont fear running with the weights. I had done 20m run with a 420kg yoke in training before so i knew the weight shouldn’t be an issue. I hadn’t trained this event at all within the past month or so as i injured my neck doing that 420kg run. In the warm up i tried 340kg and it felt kinda heavy and i didnt know if i could do well here.

But when i got under the competition weight and the referee gave me a start signal and i picked up the weight. It felt like nothing! I ended up winning this event with a time of 8,71 seconds. I finished in 7,71 seconds but i got a one second penalty in time because i wobbled abit in the end and the weights slid over the finishing line. Still i was pretty damn happy about this as i earned 12 points!

Third event, the silver dollar deadlift. I know i am a good deadlifter so i knew i can do well here. I had never done this event before though. So it was kind of a mystery. In the warm up i noticed that this was alot easier than doing it with a normal bar at the same height. I managed the first few lifts 320,340,360,380,400,420 without much effort. But 440kg , my god that was heavy! I managed to lock it out and scored a shared second place in this event landing me 10 points.

Fourth event was the Husafell carry. I know my fitness can be a limiting factor in this type of events. I had trained this a little bit in the gym and at home as i have a similar shield made out of Concrete which also weighs 160kg. Before the event i thought to myself that any distance between 45-65 meters would be a very good result.

The pickup for this was easy and i felt like i had a very good speed until around 40 meter mark. Then my leg started cramping up but i thought to myself not to quit. I turned around and kept walking backwards until the turning point. Then i managed to take a few steps ahead landing me on 46,95 meters. In the end this was enough distance for me to get a second place finish in this event, landing me 11 points.

Last event was Hercules Hold. I had never tried this event before and so it was kind of a mystery on how well i do as i dont think i have that good of a grip. I practiced for this by just hanging from a pull up bar but in the end i feel like that doesn’t contribute much for this event as it is totally different. I ended up hanging on for a good 31,53 seconds. Which granted me 7 points.

So the end results were

1. Gunnar Gimbutas , Estonia , 54 Points
2. Jesse Matilainen , Finland , 46 Points
3. Jarno Kirselä , Finland , 45,5 Points
4. Mikko Annala , Finland , 37,5 points
5. Joachim Gustavsson , Sweden , 36 points
6. Andrei Shaskov , Estonia , 35,5 points
7. Topi Ovaska , Finland , 29 points
7. Roger Karimus , Finland , 29 points
7. Veli-Pekka Kauhanen , Finland , 29 points
10. Vladislav Räsänen , Finland , 20,5 points
11. Jaakko Soukainen , Finland , 18 points
12. Ari Lähdekorpi , Finland , 2 points

I was shocked. I never believed i could compete with these guys for a podium finish. In my wildest dreams i had thought that maybe just maybe i could be be in the top 5 but never had i thought i could finish in second place. This podium finish granted me an invitation to the Finnish Open competition which will be my very first ” international ” competition. I am so thrilled and excited for this opportunity to prove how well i can do!

I would like to share with you a video of my events. Sorry about the quality. The lighting wasn’t that great there so a mobile phones camera cant do much better.