Mitchell Hooper dominates Strongman Rogue Invitational 2024 - Results and report

Last weekend, November 8 - 10, 2024, was one of the next Strongman Sport holidays. The big player in the field of strength sports hosted another edition of his, mostly crossfit competitions. But it also included both strongman and strongwoman races. I'll be covering mostly professional strongman, the world's top strongman who have been through some really tough events. The race was held in Scotland, specifically Aberdeen.

One of the main draws was Mitchell Hooper and Hafthor Bjornsson. Giant Thor was visited in Iceland just 3 weeks before the competition by the current president of the Czech National Federation of strongman Jarda Svoboda and together with other fighters around Honza Krasinski they got a taste of training with the best deadlifter in the world. How did Thor turn out, how did the whole two-day competition go? We will tell you in the following article.

There were 10 fighters in total. A total of 3 fighters on the roster boast the title of World's Strongest Man, in addition to Hooper and Bjornsson, the recently injured Tom Stoltman, who is the current title holder from this year, also entered. The competitors competed in the following events:

• Max deadlift
• Grip & press
• Inver stones
• Power drive
• Yoke escalator
• Circus medley

Max deadlift

Conventional deadlift at maximum weight, there is perhaps no greater "launcher" between disciplines than this one. All that was allowed were snatches, nothing more. And since the gentlemen are not musclemen but tough and strong guys, they started at a whopping 363 kg. Why aren't the weights rounded? I can easily explain that, Rogue is originally an American company, so all weights were in pounds, so the starting weight was a flat 800 pounds. Everyone made the base weight, plus half the starting field broke the fantastic 400kg mark.

Third place in the event went to New Zealand's Mathew Ragg, he managed a great 431 kg. The second place went to Mitchell Hooper from Canada, he broke 442 kg. The gold in the discipline went to Hafthor Bjornsson, currently the best deadlifter in the world, who easily lifted 458 kg and took the lead. During the post-discipline interview afterwards, he said he felt he was back after his recent comeback. He admitted that he feels very comfortable in the deadlifts, but he still wants to work on the push disciplines where he sees himself still needing some work to be the best.

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Grip & press

The first medley discipline, the first competitors had to overcome a 15m route with Farmer's Walk, i.e. 150kg suitcases, then 3 repetitions with 172kg logo. Separately, these weights are actually common for our Czech competitors at our Czech competitions, to combine the disciplines together is really a challenge for the competitors.

Unfortunately, exactly what Thor was hinting at became a reality and the Icelandic giant burnt out on the discipline, scoring only 2 points. Third place Tom Stoltman for a great overall time of 39.77 seconds. Second place again to Mitchell Hooper with a time of 37.03 seconds. The fastest was Tomas Evans from the USA, who just beat Hooper with a time of 37.03 seconds.

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Inver stones

Imagine a kind of intermediate between perfectly round Atlas stones and natural stones. In shape, washed and rounded river stones are not round, but rather resemble a throwing block with ragged edges. A total of 5 stones were lifted onto a raised base, i.e. a barrel. The stones ranged from 125 kg to 195 kg. And wax was not allowed, which made the whole discipline all the harder. Since this is the third discipline of the first day of competition, the competitors are already quite tired...

Only 4 competitors managed to put all 5 stones on the pedestal. Pavlo Kordiyaka, then third Tom Stoltman with a time of 36,57 seconds. Second Mitchell Hooper with a time of 31.8 seconds. Just to point out that this is a third second place finish for Hooper, who settled into a pretty solid lead after the first day. Hafthor Bjornsson defended his victory in the event with a time of 27.3 seconds. It was quite interesting to watch Bjornsson's time battle and compare him to Tom Stoltman, who is unbeatable on Atlas, both in speed and stone weight.

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Power drive

The second day started with another medley, which consisted of three parts. The first part was the rolling of a cylindrical weight weighing 340 kg, which reminded me of the straw snail substitute we see in the field at the end of summer. The second part was a 10 metre walk with a 170 kg Husafell stone, which only resembled a Husafell in shape but was a bag with sand or something inside. The competitor had to take the weight in his hands and run around a cone 5 meters away and drop it again at the original place.

The third part was then pulling a sledge weighing 295 kg. The fact that 6 competitors did not finish the whole event shows how difficult it was. Fourth place again to Pavlo Kordiyaka, who has not been doing well lately. Third place and the worst placing so far for Mitchell Hooper for a time of 81.21 seconds. Second place Hafthor Bjornsson 69.04 seconds. Tom Stoltman won the event with a time of 64.81 seconds. All three of the strongest men on the planet in the top three places...

Yoke escalator

Actually, I'm really enjoying the disciplines at this year's event... A combination of the usual strongman disciplines that is killerly sophisticated. The aim is to totally exhaust the competitors and to damage their nervous system. Who else would combine a 453 kg super yoke on 10 meters and then 3 power stairs weighing 225, 250 and 275 kg.

Plus 5 athletes in a row at the same time. Tomas Evans took bronze with a total time of 41.22 seconds. He was beaten by Evan Singleton, also from the USA, with a time of 36.98 seconds. The king of the discipline was Mitchell Hooper with a time of 35.35 seconds. Pavlo Kordiyaka was the only one who could not finish the discipline.

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Circus medley

As the name suggests, the circus dumbbells will play the main role in this discipline, they will be a kettlebell weighing 95 kg, a one-arm dumbbell weighing 115 kg and two large dumbbells weighing 170 and 184 kg. But all of them will have instead of weights plowed metal balls, exactly as they used to be seen a hundred years ago in the circuses where strong men used to perform. I should add that the 2 large dumbbells mentioned are axle weights, so they have a very wide grip and do not rotate, so it is rather harder to move them.

The goal was easy, always get each weight overhead. Please keep in mind that this is the last event of the competition and all the fighters have hit their bottom, so the question is who will last another event. Tom Stoltman took third place with 3 weights in a time of 36.18. Second place 4 weights Mitchell Hooper, needed 11.61 seconds to complete them. First place went to the great pusher Luke Stoltman, he cleared all the weights in 105.69 seconds.

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Results

Rogue invitational races were a little different. The influence of crossfit was really big here. A format where 2 fighters compete, one guy for strongman and one woman for strongwoman, although of course they had different weights for all the equipment, but it was very interesting to see the differences. Disciplines where 5 fighters competed against each other at the same time... ufff, awesome and as a great motivation. The buttons that the competitors had to press after the discipline was over and when the timing stopped, interesting...

You could see that Rogue can inject a lot of money into the strongman sport. At the same time, it was clear that it's not primarily strongmen who invent the disciplines, but that's a good thing too, it's a different way of looking at competitions. I thoroughly enjoyed them, and I hope you, our readers, did too.

Mitchell Hooper showed his tremendous complexity, only losing 6 points the entire race. He placed second a total of four times, third once and first once. And I will add that he has rightfully dominated the strongman sport for the past two years. Second place Hafthor Bjornsson, who confirmed with his words that he will fight for the highest ranks, but that the pressures are not yet good enough for him, today it was enough for second place.

Third, with the same number of points as Thor, but worse on the placing Tom Stoltman, an icon of the last few years. Thomas Evans was certainly a surprise, pushing better than he has in the past. On the other hand, disappointment may be with Pavel Kordiyak, who hasn't had the results he had last year or earlier this year. For him it may be even harder because in his homeland he is still fighting and life is more valuable than sport.