Jirka Vytiska "@czechgrizzly" looks back at the international competition in Lithuania

[Text: CzechGrizzly Jiří Vytiska] About 1 month ago I received an invitation from the Lithuanian Strongman Federation to an international competition held in Mirjampole on Saturday 18th August 2018. The first competition was held in 1993.

So, early Friday morning, my girlfriend and I set off on a rather long journey to Lithuania. Only 15 hours and 1170km spent in the car. We arrived at the hotel around 10 pm. And since we missed the official dinner, we had food ready at the hotel reception. Which a strongman would welcome before going to bed.

The next day we had the whole morning off, so a short tour of the city made sure of that. At two o'clock in the afternoon we had an official briefing, when we were briefed on the course of the race and when we drew the order for each discipline (this was quite unusual, but why not).

At three o'clock a bus arrived to take us to the local football stadium where the race was being held.

The whole parade started at 4pm, where we took to the podium individually with our countries' flags.

There were competitors from Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland, Austria and the Czech Republic.

We had six disciplines, which were quite challenging in a Lithuanian sort of way.

Discipline 1 - Log Lift medley (Log Lift 140kg 3x, 150kg 2x, 160kg 1x)

I was quite confident for the first discipline, after all log lifting is one of my best disciplines.

Yeah, but when I moved the 140kg log for the first time, it felt like it weighed 200kg. Only 3 competitors out of 10 managed to complete this discipline. Unfortunately for me, I was not among them. In the end it was a 5th place finish.

2. Discipline - 4x Fingal fingers (4 columns 160kg, 200kg, 240kg and 280kg)

In the Czech Republic, as far as this discipline is concerned, the only Fingal finger is located in my place in Sušice. So I thought, I could show something here. Every pole is different and the last one weighed almost 100kg more than the one I have at home. I was the first one to finish the discipline and I got a huge applause from the spectators, but after all, there were no sharpeners in the competition field. I finished in 5th place again.

3. Discipline - Conan Wheel (Conan Wheel 350kg)

I don't think I'm going to say too much about it here. It's a known fact that I don't like this discipline very much, in fact not at all......no and I finished last here too. Unfortunately, it's a sport.

4. Discipline - Medley Frame carry and Tyre flip (carrying a 320kg fence for 25m and 5 400kg tyre flips)

Speed was the deciding factor here for this discipline as neither the fence nor the tyre was heavy. Only the tyre was unusually narrow, so it couldn't even kick. Here I ended up in 4th place, which made me feel a bit better after my failure in the previous discipline.

5. Discipline - Farmers walk for distance (carrying 130kg suitcases for the greatest distance)

Here I was the first to enter together with Nemo Tasic. In such a discipline it is quite a disadvantage to go first. Actually, it is a disadvantage in almost every one, because the others then tactically surpass only your performance and don't have to go headlong into the blood.

Here I finished in 7th place and walked some 47m.

6. Discipline - Atlas stone (5 balls weighing 100 to 180kg)

Atlas stones have been a pretty bad discipline for me lately. I've had biceps pains on my right arm for a few months now, so I'm pretty limited. But you get so used to the discipline that you'd rather die there than give up. Well unfortunately.....I failed to lift 3 Atlas and ended up in last place in the discipline.

To sum it up. I have to say that some of the best competitors from their countries came to this race and we are pretty evenly matched amongst ourselves. So the deciding factor is what the disciplines are, how tired, sleepy, how far away, etc.

I ended up in 8th place.

The 1st place went to Aivars Šmaukstelis from Latvia, the 2nd place to Novikov from Ukraine and the 3rd place to Kobylarz from Poland.

As far as organizational things, the race and how we were taken care of. The Lithuanians have really mastered this and can't be faulted at all. Rather thank them. It was great.

And about my placing. I can't say it was a failure. The overall results were really balanced. Interestingly, a competitor from Latvia, who finished 1st last week and in the races in Poland, was 9th behind me here.

I just wasn't happy with some of the disciplines and you can see that the season is long and you start to get tired. But whatever, it's a sport. It's another experience and I'm moving on.

Finally, I want to thank my beautiful and amazing friend Misha for sticking with the journey and taking care of me. Thank you, love.

And I also want to thank Petya Zámisek and Prášilský Ráj. It wouldn't have been possible without him. And PROM-IN for the nutritional supplements.