Arnold Strongman Classic 2019 - The World's Strongest Man remains the phenomenal Hafthor "THOR" Bjornsson!

The Arnold Sports Festival was not only about the bodybuilders, the results of whose fights we have offered you in this report, but also about the fights of the strongest men on the planet. Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2 belonged to strongmen who competed in the world's toughest competition called Arnold Strongman Classic 2019.

The competition, which took place over two days and included five extremely difficult disciplines, was contested by a total of ten fighters who earned their nomination by winning a title at one of the qualifying competitions last season.

It was highly anticipated whether Iceland's Hafthor Bjornsson would be able to defend his triumph from last year, as Derek Poundstone did last time in 2009 and 2010, or whether Brian Shaw would return to the limelight.

Not only these two, but also eight other riders had a go in these disciplines:

Elephant Bar Deadlift

The first discipline of the first day was the deadlift on the Elephante Bar axis, which is more flexible, and longer than the traditional axis.

Immediately in this discipline, an incredibly high prize money was in play! The organizers offered $50,000 to anyone who could lift a minimum of 500.5 kilograms! In fact, they wanted the absolute record in the deadlift to fall here, held since 2017 by Eddie Hall, who managed to push an incredible 500 kg off the ground, but with a classic axle.

The victory was eventually won by the aforementioned Hafthor "THOR" Bjornsson, who handled a barbell weighing 474 kg. Although he did not beat Eddie Hall's record, he set a new world record in the Elephant Bar axle lift.

"THOR" attempted another deadlift of 501 kg, but unfortunately he was unsuccessful.

Brian Shaw finished second with 463 kg. He attempted another 476 kg, but this was not only unsuccessful but also caused a hamstring injury. Brian's next performance was more of an ordeal.

Elephant Bar deadlift:

Hafthro Bjornsson and his attempt with 501 kg:

Husafell Stone

The second discipline of the first day was the stone carry, which has its history in West Iceland. In the old days, fishermen used to compete to see who could lift the heaviest stone or carry it by a piece.

"THOR" dominated this discipline too, carrying the stone a full 67 metres!

The second place went to Oleksii Novikov from Ukraine who carried the stone 64 m. and the third place to Rauno Heinla from Estonia 59 m.

Brian Shaw, who was injured, has already started to lose a lot of ground here.

Husafell Stone discipline record:

Wheel of Pain

The beginning of the second day was marked by the most extreme discipline ever seen in strongman competitions. It was the Wheel of Pain, which was inspired by the movie Conan the Barbarian, whose central character was then portrayed by Arnold himself.

The 9-tonne wheel was best handled by the American Martins Licis, who covered 36.5 metres in the time limit of one minute.

"THOR" had to settle for second place in this discipline, only 20 centimetres behind Martins.

A recording of the Wheel of Pain discipline:

Austrian Oak

The second discipline of the second day was the log lifting. here the competitors could choose whether to take a 195 kg log or a lighter 175 kg log, but they would be scored less.

weighing 195 kg, for the maximum number of repetitions. Alternatively, competitors could choose an even smaller, 175 kg log. For some competitors, 195 kg was too much, so it was better for them to choose a smaller log, even at the cost of a lower placing, but they did not lose points altogether.

Here, the first place was shared by "THOR", Martins Licis, Mateusz Kieliszkowski and Mikhail Shivlyakov, who managed two repetitions identically.

Fifth place here was taken by Brian Shaw, who managed to lift the log once... The remaining fighters opted for the lighter of the logs.

Record of the Austrian Oak discipline:

Stone to Shoulder

The very last discipline of the whole competition was lifting a 186 kg stone to the shoulder in a time limit of 2.5 minutes.

Mateusz Kieliszkowski took the first place with five repetitions.

The second place went to Martins Licis with 2 repetitions.

Third place with one repetition was taken by Matjaz Belšak and Hafthor Bjornsson. In the case of "THOR" it was a safe bet to confirm his victory!

Recording of the Stone to Shoulder discipline:

Cut of all disciplines and announcement of the champion:

Source:
www.youtube.com
www.instagram.com
www.arnoldsportsfestival.com
www.youtube.com