Very late with this blog post and for that I apologise, though to make for it this is the first post on the all new The 5th Stone blog! My own personal blog was becoming too World’s Strongest Man oriented so a break-away was necessary. It’s a bit generic at the moment but fear not, customisation is coming!
Heat 2 of World’s Strongest Man 2009 was on Bravo TV (in the UK) this past Monday and saw the appearance of 5-time champion Mariusz Pudzianowski, bidding to make it six! The rest of the field looked like this:
Phil Pfister (America) – World’s Strongest Man 2006 (beating Pudzianowski into 2nd)
Alexander Klyushev – 1st World’s Strongest Man appearance
Darren Sadler (England) – 3rd appearance at World’s Strongest Man
Ervin Katona (Serbia) – 1st World’s Strongest Man appearance
Jimmy Laureys (Belgium) – 1st World’s Strongest Man appearance
As always the first event was the Medley which saw Pudzianowski and Pfister pitted against each other, and in a show of intent from Phil Pfister who beat the reigning champion by almost 2 seconds.
The other 4 competitors were a long way off, though only 5 seconds separated 3rd to 6th place. Katona managed 3rd place, Sadler 4th, Laureys 5th and Klyushev in 6th.
The 2nd event was the truck pull, and though he didn’t win, it’s worth highlighting newcomer Ervin Katona’s performance. Reminiscent of the Truck Pull of days gone by, Katona threw down the rope in front of him and just pulled the truck using his weight and brute strength and he strode into 3rd place with the truck attached to the harness – old school!
Once again Phil Pfister won the event, and once again Mariusz Pudzianowski could only manage 2nd. Jarek Dymek did mention back at the Giants Live Qualifying Tour that Pudzianowski had badly injured his arm – was this affecting his performance in this qualifying heat? Sadler again finished in 4th but the bottom positions were reversed as Klyushev was 5th and Laureys 6th.
After 2 events Pfister led Pudzianowski by 2 points with 12 points. Katona was 3rd with 8, Sadler 4th with 6 and Klyushev equal 5th with 3 points.
Officially the shortest and lightest competitor in World’s Strongest Man 2009, Darren Sadler didn’t let that stop him putting in an awesome performance in winning the Dead Lift, even beating the mighty Mariusz Pudzianowski by nearly 2 seconds en route to completing all 7 reps in 35.19 seconds. For the 3rd event running Katona came 3rd, Klyushev was 4th and Laureys was 5th. Pfister, in his notoriously worst event, only managed 3 reps to come in 6th.
Pudzianowski was at the top of the leader board where he liked to be, 3 points ahead of Pfister as we head into the 4th event; The Car Walk. In 75 seconds the competitors had to carry the 451Kg car 25 yards – quickest time wins. Simple, right? For Phil Pfister it seemed to be as he got back to winning ways, grabbing the maximum 6 points – just squeezing past Pudzianowski. Klyushev, Katona and Sadler also finished the course to get 3rd, 4th and 5th places respectively but Laureys collapsed, unhurt, after just a few meters to get 6th place.
Thanks to the Car Lift, Pfister had 19 points and was in 2nd place, now only 1 point behind Pudzianowski. Katona was 3rd with 15, Sadler 4th with 14, Klyushev 5th with 10 and Laureys 6th with 6 points.
None of the competitors could come anywhere near Derek Poundstone’s 9 lifts in the Dumbbell Press from Heat 1. Pfister guaranteed his place in the finals, by getting another 1st place with 6 lifts, though he shared that 1st place with Klyushev. Sadler was 3rd with 4 lifts while Pudzianowski and Katona shared 4th place with 3 lifts. Laureys languished in last place, not managing even 1 lift.
Pfister was now through to the final and barring a disaster Pudzianowski would be too, though statistically Sadler could qualify too. Though Pfister didn’t need to try, he did, and demolished the other 5 with a time of 24.88 for all 5 stones. Pudzianowski managed all 5 stones in a time of 33.91 seconds, giving him 2nd place and the other place in the final with Pfister. The others all managed 4 stones with 3rd to 6th being Sadler, Katona, Klyushev and Laureys.
After 6 gruelling events the final standings looked like this:
Interesting to note that while he was consistent enough to get 2nd place and qualify for the final, Mariusz Pudzianowski didn’t win one single event. Is he injured, is not on good form, or was he just taking it easy and saving himself for the final? Time will tell.
Heat 4 is on Monday 25th January here in the UK and sees Giants Live rivals Richard Skog and Travis Ortmayer facing off again.
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