BeStrong Děčín 2024 - Women & King of Axle | Results and reportage

On Sunday, 26th June, strong girls competed in the morning part, then in the afternoon the King of Axle competition took place. However, the venue changed from the Děčín embankment under the library. This time everyone gathered in the amazing premises of Sportcenter Valhalla.

BeStrongwoman

The girls gathered in the morning part of the program and I should add right away that there were not a few of them. Lately I've always wondered what it could be that whenever I talk to female competitors in strongwoman or strength sports in general, they always complain about not enough competitions, not enough opportunities. But every time I came across a competition, most of the time the girls could be counted on one hand. That always seemed like a missed opportunity. But this was definitely not true of the race in Decin. Girls, women, ladies were even divided into two categories Hard and Easy, the disciplines were the same, but the weight of each discipline was different. Anyway, in total there were 13 competitors on Sunday.

The girls competed in the following disciplines

• Car pull
• Press medley
• Axle Apollon Deadlift
• Super Yoke
• Shoulder Sandbag

The girls really tackled everything without the slightest hesitation. Here I will just describe what happened on the sports field. The girls were tasked with pulling a car on the straps, and they did it without a counter-rope. In the second discipline, the task was to get a total of 4 weights over their heads. This was followed by the Deadlift with Apollo wheels, which are larger but heavy discs. This was followed by a Super Yoke over a 20m course and finished with a sandbag lift onto the shoulder for the most reps.

The admiration from the spectators was clear to see, and the girls showed they could give a good roar too, this while cheering their opponents on together. Yes there is not so much animosity between the power athletes, although of course everyone wanted to win.

Results:

Easy category:

1. Michaela Zemánková
2. Jana Habánová
3. Zuzana Ziadehová
4. Kateřina Procházková
5. Nikola Supakova
6. Tereza Brtůňková
7. Zuzana Tomanová
8. Adéla Orlitová

Category Hard:

1. Marie Tomečková
2. Dominika Krtková
3. Michaela Kučerová
4. Jana Zenkova
5. Dominika Uhrova

The afternoon part was filled with a race called King of Axle, which was a duel where the main role was played by a fat Axle axle.

King of Axle

This part of the competition was a de facto double battle, with the fat Axle playing the main role. Anyone who thought they could fight for a big result could enter.

• Axle Deadlift
• Axle Press

In addition to the Axle Axle, the Apollo wheels, a huge 18 inches in diameter and overweight discs, played a major role, which can help especially in the deadlift because the barbell doesn't lift as much from the bottom. But if you load it up, it's definitely not an easy thing to do...

The whole competition was done in last man standing style, that is, starting at the base weight, then adding more, the competitor, if he was confident and wanted to save some strength, could simply skip the weight. But if he failed, he dropped out and could no longer participate in that part. This race had no second places, it was really about finding the true champion of this duel.

It started quite quickly. On the axle press we saw tremendous performances from all the competitors. As an example of the combativeness of Adam Zajicek, a 15 year old youngster, who got a thick 110 kg in the weightlifting scissors, yet has a body weight of around 80 kg.

While the top of the whole competition was around the cruel 150 kg, these were managed by Filip Zajíček (Adam's older brother), a competitor competing in lighter weight categories literally at the world level. Next were Dominik Ponocny, Petr Hector Klich and Pepa Hojdar. Václav Miláček, Tomáš Procházka and Štěpán Bystřinec managed more, the latter even won the discipline with a performance of 170 kg.

The deadlift again turned into a show of monstrous weights. Nine of the eighteen competitors got over 300 kg Really a parade of super performances. But it was Dominik "The Nightshifter" Ponocny, a Viking in appearance, a friendly guy in character, who took the amazement and appreciation of all the spectators and competitors when he lifted a magical 400 kg.

This fantastic deadlift performance shot Dominik to the number one spot with a total of 550 kg, so the proud title of King of Axle now has its holder. Congratulations.

A great experience in the busy Sunday programme was jointly provided by Sportcentrum Valhalla and Pivovar Sever, to whom the biggest thanks go for the opportunity to host such a competition. Thank you.