| Strongman Champions League 2011 |
|
|---|---|
The official logo of Strongman Champions League |
|
| Tournament information | |
| Location | Varies - league played in many locations per year |
| Established | 2008 |
| Format | Multi-event competition |
| Current champion | |
| Terry Hollands | |
The Strongman Champions League is a strongman competition circuit, bestowing the Champions League Winner title to the overall winner, and is competed for by a pool of strength athletes containing some of the most notable in the sport, including Žydrūnas Savickas, Travis Ortmayer, Mikhail Koklyaev, Ervin Katona, Andrus Murumets, Laurence Shahlaei, Matt Wanat and Terry Hollands. Initially in close partnership with the IFSA it quickly asserted its independence and has acted as a unifying force in the world of strength athletics, bringing together athletes from the IFSA with those affiliated to the World's Strongest Man circuit, and having close cooperation with other major events such as Fortissimus.
Contents |
The Strongman Champions League was developed by Ilkka Kinnunen and Marcel Mostert,longtime strongman promoters, with major contests to their credit worldwide, and was launched in 2008. Its founders described it as "a new episode in strongman"[1]. Initially, it appeared that the league was heavily driven by the IFSA. It had negotiated with the IFSA to use its athletes only, rather than those used on the World's Strongest Man circuit. In an official statement released by Marcel Mostert and Ilkka Kinnunen the format was described:
"A complete series of 10-12 competitions, that will take place all over the world, but most of the competitions will be held in Europe. The very best IFSA champions, referees and their organizers will be the guarantee of a great new, fresh excitement in Strongman sport. The competition venues are the best which each country can offer and it will include the country's own traditional elements."[1] As well as citing that all points will be cumulated for a Champions League Winner at the end of the year, the organisers also explicitelty stated that "Rules will be done officially as usual in all IFSA competitions" and that "The top 3 will be directly placed in the IFSA World Championships".[1] Mostert also said "All together we think that this is a perfect platform of competitions that will lead to another great World Championship.".[1]
Thus, the IFSA were inextricably linked at the inception of the league. The IFSA, however, were in reportedly dire financial straits towards the end of that year. By December, Mostert distanced the league from the ailing governing body and explicitely said that the Strongman Champions League had nothing to do with IFSA. He told IronMind "We have our own logo, we have our own brand, we do our own competitions."[2] Its own website was launched shortly afterwards.
The league organisers had originally reported that Champions League competitions "will be televised and spread all over the world and they released a list of venues that had been organised in advance. In the harsh economic climate of 2008, the league was not immune to the effects, and the league did have to cancel some venues, but unlike with the IFSA, the vast majority of the competitions still took place. In 2008, the SCL had 45 top strength athletes competing, representing more than 20 countries.[3]
In 2008 Paul Ohl stated that the Strongman Champions League was one of three organisations that had made an agreement with Fortissimus in order to unite the world strength community, the others being the American Strongman Corporation, and the Aussiepower organization. Within the agreement, Fortissimus, the competition that confers the title of "Strongest Man on the Planet", guaranteed that the winner of the America's Strongest Man title would be granted a slot in Fortissimus from 2009, as would the winner of the Australia's Strongest Man title. The agreement with the Strongman Champions League went further, stating that the top three athletes would have guaranteed places and in return the top Canadian athletes would have guaranteed selected participation in the Champions League.[4] This later went further, guaranteeing the SCL its top five athletes would have places.[3] The agreement was reemphasised in a joint statement from Marcel Mostert and Paul Ohl in early 2009.[3]
The 2009 programme was planned with ten major contests on schedule. In addition, feeder contests were introduced, one happening in Spain in December 2008 and a further event in Germany called the FIBO Strongman Classic in April 2009. The best two athletes from this FIBO classic 2009 edition were guaranteed into the Champions League, and it was postulated that this German event would be promoted to full SCL status in 2010.
The Strongman Champions League importantly made further progress in acting as a fundamental part of a unifying movement for world strength athletics by making plans to help get its athletes to the 2009 World's Strongest Man contest. Mostert stated that "The top 5 SCL athletes will have places in the Giants Live tour for qualifying at World's Strongest Man (WSM) 2009". In addition, he also stated that wild cards for the WSM will include SCL athletes. He went on to say that "Finally we made it all possible again that all the athletes have chances to qualify for the WSM, which means in my opinion the WSM will have the strongest field ever in her history!". He went on to thank TWI/IMG and Giants Live for their part in making these possibilities. This was groundbreaking because for a number of years prior to this, the athletes under the IFSA had been banned by the federation from entering WSM (since the IFSA fell out of favour with TWI). Likewise, the athletes invited to participate in WSM were not invited to participate in IFSA events. Some competitions bridged the divide, such as the Arnold Strongman Classic and more reently Fortissimus, but neither had the history or gravitas, or indeed popular appeal of the iconic World's Strongest Man. The IFSA athletes, with the demise of the IFSA finances, almost all competed in SCL from 2008. This deal, along with the Fortissimus deal before it, united storngman in a way it had not been since 2004.
The 2009 season began properly on 9 May, with the Strongman Champions League Serbia. Finland followed on 16 May[5], with Slovakia and Holland in June.
| Name and Location | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Place | Date[6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Latvia | Žydrūnas Savickas | Travis Ortmayer | Agris Kazelniks | 22 March |
| Serbia | Žydrūnas Savickas | Ervin Katona | Andrus Murumets | 10 May 2008 |
| Holland | Žydrūnas Savickas | Andrus Murumets | Travis Ortmayer | 1 June 2008 |
| Bulgaria | Andrus Murumets | Žydrūnas Savickas | Ervin Katona | 21 June 2008 |
| Lithuania | Žydrūnas Savickas | Vidas Blekaitis | Saulius Brusokas | 2 August 2008 |
| Romania | Žydrūnas Savickas | Ervin Katona | Oleksandr Lashin | 16 August 2008 |
| Finland | Mikhail Koklyaev | Žydrūnas Savickas | Ervin Katona | 29 August 2008 |
| Overall placings[7] | Žydrūnas Savickas 130 points | Ervin Katona 72 points | Agris Kazelniks 60 points |
Events were planned in the following locations but cancelled: Dubai, Germany and Hungary
| Name and Location | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Place | Date[6] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serbia | Mikhail Koklyaev | Andrus Murumets | Travis Ortmayer | Saturday, May 9, 2009[8] |
| Finland | Andrus Murumets | Vidas Blekaitis | Martin Wildauer | 16/17 May 2009[9] |
| Slovakia | Andrus Murumets | Terry Hollands | Alexander Klyushev | 7 June 2009[10] |
| Holland | Mikhail Koklyaev | Agris Kazelniks | Richard van der Linden | 14 June 2009[11] |
| Spain | Ervin Katona | Andrus Murumets | Jimmy Laureys | 10 October 2009[12][13] |
| England | Žydrūnas Savickas | Mark Felix | Andrus Murumets | 18 October 2009[14] |
| Hungary | Žydrūnas Savickas | Andrus Murumets | Ervin Katona | 31 October 2009[15][13] |
| Kiev, Ukraine |
Žydrūnas Savickas | Travis Ortmayer | Agris Kazelniks | 14 November 2009[16][15] |
| Overall placings[17] | Andrus Murumets 105 points | Agris Kazelniks 68 points | Žydrūnas Savickas 60 points |
The 2009 SCL finals were planned to take place in China on November 25, 2009[13] but the event was cancelled.
The Strongman Champions League introduced qualifying competitions for 2009. From these competitions, the top two were guaranteed places in the SCL. The first qualifier was run in Los Barrios, Spain. The second was the FIBO Classic in Germany.
| Name and Location | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Place | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain Spanish International Challenge |
Jarno Hams | Ervin Katona | Steve MacDonald | December 2008[18] |
| Germany FIBO Classic |
Travis Ortmayer | Martin Wildauer | Igor Werner | April 2009[19] |
In Germany Tobias Ide, the Strongest Man of Germany came in fourth and set a new German record in the log lift with 177.5 kg.[19]
| Name and Location | Champion | Runner-Up | 3rd Place | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kuusamo, Lapland Finland |
Zydrunas Savickas | Terry Hollands | Konstiantyn Ilin | March 21, 2010[20] |
| Germany |
Mikhail Koklyaev | Terry Hollands | Travis Ortmayer | April 24, 2010[21] |
| Ideapark, Finland | Mikhail Koklyaev | Terry Hollands | Travis Ortmayer | May 16, 2010[22] |
| Limerick, Ireland | Zydrunas Savickas/ Terry Hollands tie |
Agris Kazelniks | June 6, 2010[23] | |
| Sofia, Bulgaria | Ervin Katona | Johannes Arsjo | Terry Hollands | June 13, 2010[24] |
| Holland | Travis Ortmayer | Mikhail Koklyaev | Ervin Katona | June 20, 2010[25] |
| Serbia | Ervin Katona | Agris Kazelniks | Gabor Fargacs | August 29, 2010[26] |
| Slovakia | Ervin Katona | Terry Hollands | Konstantin Ilin | October 9, 2010[27] |
| Kiev, Ukraine
|
Sergey Romanchuk | Agris Kazelniks | Mikhail Koklyaev | December 18, 2010[28] |
| Overall placings | Terry Hollands 132 points | Ervin Katona 106 points | Mikhail Koklyaev 98 points | [29] |
In its inaugural year, the Strongman Champions League introduced the World Log Lift Championships. The event had been a staple of strongman competitions from their earliest days, with the 1980 World's Strongest Man contest, seeing Bill Kazmaier, hoist 157 kg to win the event and set a world record. Over eight years Kazmaier increased the record to 170 kg. Jamie Reeves, winner of the 1989 World's Strongest Man contest, managed 177 kg in 1989, and 180 kg in 1992. It was ten years before 2001 World's Strongest Man winner Svend Karlsen set a new record in 2002 of 185 kg. In 2003, Hugo Girard set a new record in Canada with 187.5 kg. In 2004 Raimunds Bergmanis set a new record lifting 190 kg. Zydrunas Savickas also set a new record in 2005, bringing it up to 200 kg, and then again in 2006 to 205 kg. In 2008 Savickas broke it twice more, with marks of 207.5 and 210. The current world record is held by Savickas at 212.5 kg, which was set at the 2009 Log Lift Championships.
| Year | Name | Log Weight | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Bill Kazmaier | 157 kg | USA |
| 1981 | Bill Kazmaier | 163.5 kg | USA |
| 1988 | Bill Kazmaier | 170 kg | Hungary |
| 1989 | Jamie Reeves | 177 kg | Iceland |
| 1992 | Jamie Reeves | 180 kg | South Africa |
| 2002 | Svend Karlsen | 185 kg | Sweden |
| 2003 | Hugo Girard | 187.5 kg | Canada |
| 2004 | Zydrunas Savickas | 188 kg | Ukraine |
| 2004 | Raimunds Bergmanis | 190 kg | Russia |
| 2005 | Zydrunas Savickas | 200 kg | Hungary |
| 2005 | Zydrunas Savickas | 202.5 kg | Latvia |
| 2006 | Zydrunas Savickas | 205 kg | Holland |
| 2008 | Zydrunas Savickas | 207.5 kg | Holland |
| 2008 | Zydrunas Savickas | 210 kg | Lithuania |
| 2009 | Zydrunas Savickas | 212.5 kg | Lithuania |
Zydrunas Savickas entered the 2008 Log Lift World Championships as the clear favorite, and intended to set a new record with 212.5 kg.[42] Savickas' competitors included Mikhail Koklyaev, Ervin Katona, Sebastian Wenta, Oleksandr Lashyn, Tobias Ide, Agris Kazelniks, Oleksandr Pekanaov, Krzysztof Radzikowski and Saulius Brusokas.[42]
The competition, held in Lithuania, saw each lift judged by three officials similar to Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting. The referees were Strongman Champions League founders Ilkka Kinnunen, Marcel Mostert and Latvian weighlifter Viktors Ščerbatihs, who had won the bronze medal in the +105 kg superheavyweight class at the recent Beijing Olympics. One of the strongest contenders, Oleksandr Pekanov, who had a personal best of 190 kg missed his opener of 180 kg three times. However, a number of other athletes came away with personal records, and two National Records were set. Zydrunas Savickas missed his world record attempt of 212.5 kg, but won the championships with his lift of 200 kg.[43]
| # | Name | Log Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zydrunas Savickas | 200 kg (missed 212.5 kg for a new world record) |
| 2 | Mikhail Koklyaev | 195 kg |
| 3= | Sebastian Wenta | 195 kg (NR) |
| 3= | Oleksandr Lashyn | 195 kg |
| 5 | Krzysztof Radzikowski | 180 kg |
| 6 | Ervin Katona | 180 kg (NR) |
| 7 | Agris Kazelniks | 170 kg |
| 8 | Saulius Brusokas | 160 kg |
| 9 | Tobias Ide | 160 kg |
The championships took place in Kaunas, Lithuania on November 21 2009.
| # | Name | Log Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zydrunas Savickas | 212.5 kg (WR) |
| 2 | Krzysztof Radzikowski | 195 kg |
| 3 | Vidas Blekaitis | 190 kg |
| 4 | Ervin Katona | 180 kg |
| 5 | Saulius Brusokas | 170 kg |
| 6 | Agris Kazelniks | 165 kg |
| 7 | Marys Leitis | 165 kg |
| 8 | Aleksandr Mantserov | 160 kg |
| 9 | Dainis Zageris | 150 kg |
The Log Lift Championships were not held in 2010, and was moved up to February 2011 to kick off the 2011 season of SCL.[46]
The 2011 World Log Lift Championships were held in Siemens Arena in Vilnius, Lithuania on Feb. 12, 2011 to kick off the 2011 SCL season.[47] Key competitors were reigning champion Zydrunas Savickas, Vidas Blekaitis and Vytautas Lalas who finished in the top 3 places respectively, with Zavickas winning his 3rd straight log lift title. There were 12 athletes in total, 3 athletes failed their opening weight on all 3 attempts.[48] The event was broadcast live on Eurosport.[49]
| # | Name | Log Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zydrunas Savickas | 192.5 kg (missed 215 kg for a new world record)[50] |
| 2 | Vidas Blekaitis | 190 kg |
| 3 | Vytautas Lalas | 185 kg |
| 4 | Patrick Baboumian | 185 kg (NR) |
| 5 | Ervin Katona | 185 kg |
| 6 | Warrick Brant | 182.5 kg |
| 7 | Bjorn Andre Solvang | 175 kg |
| 8 | Agris Kazelniks | 175 kg |
| 9 | Marshall White | 170 kg |
|
|||||