Silicon Hill Strongest Man 2023 | Results and reportage

On 20 April 2023, Silicon Hill Strongest Man 2023 took place as part of the big and already traditional SHOW Strahov 2023 event, where a big music and entertainment festival will take place on that Wednesday at Strahov University Halls of Residence. The whole event was created spontaneously in 2018 as an introduction of strongman sport to university students and also as a promotion of the sport as such. Only a few enthusiasts showed up for the first event, where the weather totally failed and the competition was held in the snow. The next year the event was a regular race, even in good weather. Since then, the popularity has only grown.

Due to limited time, this year's race was attended by a total of 19 male and 4 female representatives of the fairer sex. The men were divided into weight categories, however no one from the lightest up to 80 kg entered, so there were only two groups, "small" up to 90 kg and "large" over 90 kg. The division into groups was reflected by the different weights of all the equipment in the disciplines. Here at Silicon Hill, there were a total of four for the competitors. Although the weights for the disciplines do not seem high, it must be noted that only beginners or unregistered competitors in other, higher leagues were allowed to enter the event.
For a discipline, I always list the weights in order of big guys, little guys and women.

• Loglift for reps (105 kg, 90 kg, 32 kg)
• Axle deadlift reps (200kg, 180kg, 75kg)
• Farmer's walk (117kg, 102kg, 47kg)
• Medley - Sandbag + Sled pull (40kg + 60kg + 190kg, 40kg + 60kg + 160kg, 40kg + 120kg)

The technical support, printing of results, documents for support staff, and just about everything else was taken care of by Jakub Šejna, whose service was great, but I will allow myself a personal note: "I really wanted to have that coffee, Kuba, to warm me up!". A strict eye over the rules and repetitions was kept by retired professional strongman Martin Sedlacek, who knows from his own experience how everything should be set up and prepared, he willingly gave precise instructions to the competitors. The eloquent Aleš Bukovský took care of the commotion among everyone with his voice and microphone in hand. In addition to these gentlemen, there were several other helpful assistants without whom the race could not have run so smoothly.

The Silicon Hill Strongest Man was held as part of the Show Strahov 2023 event, so it was unusually on Wednesday, and the time was unusual, so compared to all other races in the season, the start of the race was at 5 pm. And because there were only four disciplines in total, everything was running like clockwork and around 8 pm it was already done. The competitors were drawn a number within their category, which determined the order in the disciplines throughout the race. In addition, the first two disciplines were held in pairs. The women always started, the little guys continued and the big guys finished the final. This was to make it easier to load on the barbell instead of dropping it. This year the weather was kind of half and half, when the sun shone it was for a t-shirt, when the wind blew it was for a sweatshirt, when the sun went behind a cloud it was for a jacket, but it didn't rain and I think everyone enjoyed it.

Loglift

The women here were lifting a nice little log made of wood. Actually all of them did well with it, but the best was Anna Šebíková, who did a great 18 reps. Among the small guys, Tomas Prochazka stood out, who, besides winning the discipline with his 7 repetitions, gained fans among the spectators by entering the discipline shirtless. The big guys weren't laughing too hard when they tried the log, for the bigger half of them it was beyond their strength, so unfortunately zeros were handed out. Ondra Batelka won the discipline with four valid attempts.

Axle deadlift

Axle deadlift is 5 centimeters in diameter. Jerks were forbidden, so rather than the deadlift as such, the competitors' grip was tested within the time limit of one minute. Among the women, Anna Šebíková was the clear winner, and with her 30 repetitions she clearly consolidated her lead. Among the small men, Petr Mergleský won by completing 16 repetitions. In the big guys there were some split places, because a total of 11 repetitions were lifted by three. Ondřej Batelka, Filip Hladej and Dominik Kraus.

Farmer's walk

Farmer's walk with loaded suitcases on a 2x 10m course with a turn in the middle was enjoyed by everyone solo, but it was a very fast race. Among the women, Jitka Frühbauer was the top sprinter with a time of 13.88 seconds. The small men were dominated by Tomas Prochazka, who completed the course in 16.28 seconds. Ondra Batelka escaped the big guys again and clearly went for the victory. His time of 14,83 speaks for everything.

Medley

The athletes have one last discipline ahead of them, so far it was two static and one running, the second running one was to drain their last strength. And it was just such a medley that took the remaining strength away from the competitors. On the 10 metre course, first a sandbag was carried, then the competitor had to go back for a second sandbag and finally drag the sledge. Only women had one sandbag. It is also worth mentioning that the whole race took place on perfectly flat tartan, which has the property that it does not slide much, which in the case of sledges, made the whole situation more difficult... Especially before the last discipline, there was a point difference between the two competitors, so the winner takes all. Jitka Frühbauer became the better one in the medley, when she did everything in 24.08 seconds. The little guys had two sandbags already, so they had to go back more than once, Daniel Stepanek ran the fastest of all, taking the win of the discipline with a time of 33.06. Filip Hladej was the fastest among the big men, leaving all his rivals behind with a time of 32.63.

It was a really good race, perfectly prepared, watched with interest by the spectators from the main music event. I hope that the tradition created by Silicon Hill Strongest Man will continue and that we will see each other again next year on the Silicon Hill, as the students nickname Strahov.