Giants Live World Tour Finals 2024 - Results and coverage

The next Giants Live event is called the World Tour Finals and was held on October 19 in Scotland, specifically in Glasgow. The biggest draw was the duel between two of the best strongmen on the planet, i.e. this year's three-time World's Strongest Man Tom Stoltman and his Canadian opponent Mitchell Hooper, who beat Tom at WSM last year. Unfortunately, this fight did not take place, because just a few days before the actual competition Tom Stoltman withdrew due to injury and body cleansing.

Even so, 12 of the world's top athletes competed for the title, unfortunately without Hafthor Bjornsson, who still hasn't forgiven the promoters of Giants Live and World's Strongest Man for past disputes and is ignoring these competitions for the time being. But I still hope that at least World's Strongest Man gets a look in. Strongman competed in the following events:

• Dumbbell Ladder
• Farmer's Walk and Super Yoke Medley
• Axle Deadlift
• Hercules Hold
• Atlas Stones

How did the whole competition go, who got everyone's "eyes" dirty, who put bread on who's hands? We'll find out now:

Dumbbell Ladder

Lifting several giant dumbbells, a very well-known discipline even from our home competitions. In Glasgow, there were a total of 5 dumbbell lifts starting at 80kg and ending at 120kg. I would like to point out that not so long ago similar weights were lifted in the sign of world records, namely Dimitar Savatinov, who then set his record at 143 kg, after a few years surpassed by Mateusz Kieliszkowski, who managed an even 150 kg and is still the current world record holder.

I can't leave without mentioning that very close to the world record is also Lukas Patera, who is a fantastic one-handed lifter and registered 140 kg. But back to Glasgow, all five dumbbells, including the 120kg one, were done by a total of 4 competitors, Luke Stoltman fourth, with Trey Mitchell just half a second faster with a time of 51.14 seconds. Second place Roman Grekov from Ukraine with a time of 45.54 and first place fantastic Canadian Mitchell Hooper with a time of 43.84. Unfortunately there was an injury after the first discipline, Jaco Schoonwinkel from South Africa had to withdraw from the race after the discipline.

Medley

Running medley, 20 metres of 150kg fufry in each hand, at the end of the course suitcases to put down or throw away and back 20 metres to bring the Super Yoke with a weight of 454kg. Nothing for sissies, that's some serious weight, literally unthinkable a few years ago, now you can run with that weight. Don't believe it? Third place, Luke Stoltman, 28.23 seconds. Second place Evans Aree, who we know from the 2023 race in Vrdy near Čáslav, his time 27.46 seconds. First place in the event again goes to the Hoopers' home in Kadada, Micthell doing it all in a brutal 22.69 seconds.

Axle deadlift

A fat 50mm diameter axle loaded to 360kg. The competitor had exactly one minute to complete as many reps as possible. None of the competitors recorded a zero. A total of 4 strongmen, Trey Mitchell, Luke Richardson, Evans Aryee, and Wesley Derwinsky, managed a split second place for which "only" five valid reps were needed. The winner was again Micthell Hooper, for six reps.

Hercules Hold

Holding two poles tilted apart is a beautiful discipline where you need a clear head and a strong grip. In my experience, with the referee's whistle blowing, every second literally takes forever. It returns to its standard duration as soon as the discipline is over by dropping the handle from your hands. In our home basin the discipline can be watched in the form of 2 cars on a tilted plane, but now and then the spectator may come across a beautiful wooden hercules tribute made to measure. Luke Richardson had the third best grip at 65.34 seconds. Trey Mitchell of the USA had the better grip and head, lasting 69.79 seconds. Mitchell Hooper then lasted even longer and sealed his result with a time of 72.48 seconds.

Atlas stones

It doesn't happen very often, but I mentioned it recently in the case of the Golčov Jeníkov competition, where Čestmir Šíma failed the first discipline - Loglift and recorded an unpopular zero. He then won all the other disciplines with his sovereign continuation of the race and won the very difficult and well attended race. Following his example, Pavel Zadražil repeated this performance in Klatovy, winning all disciplines and not entering the last one to save his body and his health.

This is exactly what Mitchell Hooper did. He didn't have to start, he already won. So it was just a game of second and other places on the box. Five stones weighing from 100 to 180 kg were managed by about half of the starting field. The fastest then were third place Trey Mitchell with a time of 26.69 seconds, second Kane Francis 26.38 and first Luke Stoltman, who definitely confirmed when the stones, Stoltman first. He did it all in a time of 24.94 seconds.

Results

A great and well contested race is over. Mitchell Hooper took the overall win with 48 points, with Trey Mitchell of the USA in second place with 44.5 points. Third place went to local Luke Richadson with the same number of points, but a worse result on the Atlases. Great race.