2006 World's Strongest Man

2006 World's Strongest Man
Host city China Sanya, China
Winner United States Phil Pfister
Nations participating 14
Athletes participating 25

The 2006 Met-Rx World's Strongest Man was the 29th edition of World's Strongest Man and was won by Phil Pfister, the first American to win the competition since Bill Kazmaier in 1982. The contest took place between the 14th and 23 September 2006, in Sanya, China.

The 25 competitors in the World's Strongest Man qualified through the World's Strongest Man Super Series. The Super Series consist of exclusive Grand Prix events produced all over the world. Official Super Series site

Format

The 25 competitors were split into five separate heats, each consisting of six events. After each event each competitor was given points, from 5 for first to 1 for last. Half points occurred if more than one competitor had the same result, and no points were scored if a competitor did not take part in an event. The points were tallied after the six events and the two competitors with the most points from each heat progressed to the final. The final consisted of seven events and the champion was the competitor with the most points after all of the events.

The Head referee was Colin Bryce, assisted by Svend Karlsen (the 2001 World's Strongest Man). Jouko Ahola, World's Strongest Man winner from 1997 and 1999, was the equipment manager.

Events

There were a total of 11 different events used in the competition:

Qualifying heats

Heat 1[3]

# Name Nationality Pts
1 Mariusz Pudzianowski Poland Poland 25
2 Don Pope United States USA 18.5
3 Arild Haugen Norway Norway 16
4 Reza Gharaei Iran Iran 16
5 Jessen Paulin Canada Canada 11.5

Heat 2[3]

# Name Nationality Pts
1 Terry Hollands United Kingdom United Kingdom 22.5
2 Raivis Vidzis Latvia Latvia 21.5
3 Jesse Marunde United States USA 20.5
4 Dave Ostlund United States USA 19.5
5 Gu Yan Li China China 5

Heat 3[3]

# Name Nationality Pts
1 Phil Pfister United States USA 21.5
2 Mark Felix United Kingdom UK 18
3 Janne Virtanen Finland Finland 17.5
4 Elbrus Nigmatullin Russia Russia 17
5 Darren Sadler United Kingdom United Kingdom 16

Heat 4[3]

# Name Nationality Pts
1 Tarmo Mitt Estonia Estonia 21
2 Jarek Dymek Poland Poland 20.5
3 Boris Haraldsson Iceland Iceland 19
4 Dominic Filiou Canada Canada 16
5 Kevin Nee United States USA 12.5

Heat 5[3]

# Name Nationality Pts
1 Sebastian Wenta Poland Poland 26.5
2 Sławomir Toczek Poland Poland 23
3 Josh Thigpen United States USA 17
4 Odd Haugen Norway Norway 10.5
5 Magnus Samuelsson Sweden Sweden 8 (Inj.)

Final

Mariusz Pudzianowski, the reigning champion, started well in the final. He was joint first with Mark Felix in the Dead Lift, with 16 lifts and won the power stairs in 26.33 seconds, almost 8 seconds faster than second placed Tarmo Mitt. The power stairs proved a tough task for others though, Raivis Vidzis coped the worst but managed to carry on.[4] In the 3rd event, the overhead stone lift, Phil Pfister dominated and lifted all 4 stones, while no other competitor could lift more than 2. The top 5 after the first day of the final was:

# Name Nationality Pts
1 Mariusz Pudzianowski Poland Poland 28.5
2 Mark Felix United Kingdom UK 21.5
3 Phil Pfister United States USA 21
4 Tarmo Mitt Estonia Estonia 17
5 Don Pope United States USA 17

Pfister dramatically closed the gap to Pudzianowski in the 2 events on day 2 of the final as he won both of them. Pudzianowski struggled to 6th in the Fingal Fingers, while Pfister set a world record time of 5 fingers in 31.92 second and in the bus pull Pfister managed to pull his bus just 12 centimetres further than Pudzianowski to leave himself 1.5 points behind the leader. The top 5 after the second day of the final was:

# Name Nationality Pts
1 Mariusz Pudzianowski Poland Poland 42.5
2 Phil Pfister United States USA 41
3 Don Pope United States USA 32
4 Mark Felix United Kingdom UK 30.5
5 Tarmo Mitt Estonia Estonia 27

Despite having won 3 events in a row, many people expected Pfister to struggle in the Car Walk[5] and he needed something special once Pudzianowski had set a time of 27.4 seconds and amazingly Pfister beat it by just over half a second, meaning the 2006 WSM would go right down to the wire in the Atlas Stones, with just half a point separating them. The Atlas Stones proved to be extremely tight but Pfister just edged Pudzianowski and let out a great celebratory roar as a devastated Pudzianowski let his 5th stone roll off the platform. Don Pope recovered well to finish 3rd having come last in the first event. The final results:[6]

# Name Nationality Pts
1 Phil Pfister United States USA 61
2 Mariusz Pudzianowski Poland Poland 57.5
3 Don Pope United States USA 45
4 Mark Felix United Kingdom UK 38.5
5 Tarmo Mitt Estonia Estonia 38
6 Sebastian Wenta Poland Poland 36.5
7 Terry Hollands United Kingdom United Kingdom 30
8 Jarek Dymek Poland Poland 29
9 Raivis Vidzis Latvia Latvia 26
10 Slawek Toczek Poland Poland 20.5

References and descriptions

  1. ↑ Description of Fingal FIngers on Official Website
  2. ↑ Description of Atlas Stones on Official Website
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "theworldsstrongestman.com Archive of 2006 Qualifying round". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  4. ↑ Image of Vidzis' bloody hand
  5. ↑ WSM: Pfister Wins 4th Event in a Row!
  6. ↑ Results table for Final (Bottom of Page)

External links