All focus is on the Lightweights

Will Sanderson wearing the u90kg St Ives Strongest Man Vikingr T Shirt ..

Ok so we are only days away from the first ever "Under 80kgs Britains Strongest Man" .... Its being brought to you by who ?

Oh thats right Vikingr Strongman Clothing thats who !! Turns out only the cool cats wear the Vikingr brand, others just turn there noses up at the inner workings of Vikingr and ignore the countless sponsorship deals and money going back into this tiny but fantastic sport BUT they also turn they`re noses up at lightweight strongman too .. "Stop these little shits competing and going round calling themselves strongmen" "its hurting my big fat ego" ! Well unfortunately lightweight and middle weight strongman is the future ! We are already seeing big international comps spring up like Arnold Strongman having some light weight categories and even potential for World Championships too at 80kg .. So with that said the competition although only at Olympic Sports Gym could carry some very lucrative prizes .. You could find yourself at the World Championships.

So who are these tiny Strongman they must be weak ..... Right ?? They want their own category because they can`t compete at under 90kg and especially at 105kg ?? When it comes to "Static Strength" they would just get hammered .. Surely ??

NO - Your Wrong .. Shane "Dragon Champion" Jerman winning the Car Deadlift event in the 105kg Northern Championships with 21 reps at a bodyweight of 87kg shoes on,fully clothed and with his car keys in his pocket ..

Through my involvement with under 90kg Strongman over the past few years i have seen many unbelievable performances and the athlete who stands out the most in my mind is the Dominator James Ward .. He has consistently delivered on the day of the big championships and is one of the most complete all rounders. Its all very well being able to do a 160kg Log Lift but if you can`t back that up with 15 Reps on a dumbell, 10 seconds on a Yoke or sheer determination to get that last stone then you ain't going to win the championship.. It also must be noted that reading through James training journal doesn`t really excite that much, not too many "Circus Acts" or "Feats of Strength" more clever, well thought out progressive training and work on his weaknesses` ..

So thats 90kg Strongman for you but this is under 80kg .. This is what i think ? Shane Jerman is going to be the man to beat when Sunday arrives in this new under 80kgs BSM .. He works unbelievably hard on his all round game so much so that when i watched him train at Salt Ayre i don`t think i`ve ever been as impressed by anyone in a training session .. Sure i`ve seen 180kg Log lifts, 210kg Clean and Jerks and 300kg Squats but they often end with a smile of accomplishment and a long shower .. Shane is a grafter he`ll do a PB log lift, sure BUT then he`ll do some farmers than some farmers with yoke then some farmers, tyre flip, yoke and then some more log then some jumps and maybe some more yoke .. His energy is unreal and with a static game as good as his moving game then the other guys are going to have to be on their "A" game to stay in touch with this man .. I was at the Northern Strongman Championships and i seen a little over 80kg man beat some of the best deadlifters in the 105kg ranks . He also finished top 5 on the Log lift too with a fantastic 130kg lift...





Shane Jerman hitting 130kg Log

The Other Guys

So who else can we expect to see ? well to give us a better idea we can flick back to the Super-Strength under 80kg Challenge of 2011 ..

 

Super-Strength u80kg Challenge 2011

Overall Scores

1st - 67.5 pts - Ste Baker
2nd - 67.0 pts - Glen Kerr
3rd - 56.5 pts - Mike Neale
4th - 48.5 pts - Anthony Stott
5th - 46.5 pts - Martin Przyblak
6th - 41.5 pts - Danny Ashcroft
7th - 33.0 pts - Darren Kerr
8th - 22.5 pts - Damien Larrington
9th - 19.5 pts - Charis Louca
10th- 15.0 pts - Nick Molloy
11th- 12.5 pts - Dave Howarth
12th- 9.5 pts - James Hill

The overall comp was eventually won by Ste Baker who unfortunately cannot compete this year due to ill health and Glen Kerr has decided to leave the challenge to his better looking brother Darren because he is very competitive in the Under 90kgs and doesn`t want to lose the weight in case it compromises with his under90kg Englands Challenge .. So if last years results are to give us any indication the favourite has to be Mike Neale .. Well i know Mike has certainly done his homework this year and has travelled to OSG on quite a few occasions to play with the equipment being used on the day .. He looks very strong, he tells me he`s been taking his diet very serious and is determined that this be his most successful show to date ..







Mike Neale loading the 150kg last stone on the stone run of this years BSM u80kg..





Mike hitting a 110kg Log for Reps ..

Last years 4th place and Englands under 90kg Finalist is Anthony Stott and he is currently trying to fight off an injury but if he gets his self fit for the day then i`m sure he will bring much of what he brought last year .. Duracell Bunny ENERGY !!





Martin Przyblak, Danny Ashcroft, Darren Kerr and Damien Larrington are all down to compete and they are seasoned competitors and i`m sure will all be fighting hard for top places ..

Danny Ashcroft nailing the Dumbell at St Ives under 90kg

New boy Riain Morrison is GPC World Powerlifting Champion in the Junior ranks and has trained very hard for this competition ..  He`s been also working on a few weaknesses and i`m sure he`ll be ready ..

Big Macca "Paul Macaffrey" was only a few weeks ago winning the BDFPA British Championships and he has consistantly challenged in the Englands under 90kg final for the past few years .. He is going to be one of the top dogs for sure ..

PLUS -

We have a whole bunch of newcomers to under 80kg Strongman and guys who are returning form taking a break or Powerlifting .... who can ever forget this Deadlift by Paul Dudley at the "Olympic Dragon" Strongman competition ..





Paul Dudley weighing 70ish kg pulling a massive triple bodyweight 230kg deadlift in the Dragons comp ..

I`m very excited about the comp ..

Britains Strongest Man under 80kg

Sunday 6th May 2012 



Olympic Sports Gym
4th floor portland mill
portland st south
Ashton under Lyne
Lancs
Ol67sx

Weigh-in from 8am

Start 11:30am

Refreshments available .... You can bring your own beer if you wish ..

Bouncy Castle and the 1st ever Vikingr Pop-up Shop ..

Events - Subject to change.

Event 1 - Yoke(270kg) and Duck Walk Medley (160kg) 15 metres each way.

Event 2 - Loglift Medley - 90kg Thin Log - 100kg IFSA - 110kg IFSA - 120kg IFSA.

Event 3 - Max Deadlift Oly Bar with Truck Wheels(Around 15"). No Suits allowed but Straps are. Choose your Start weight but once you've entered you must lift each following weight . One fail out .. Weights are 220kg - 250kg - 280kg - 300kg then 10kg jumps .

Event 4 - Carry and Drag Medley.

Event 5 - Giant Rail Sleeper Farmers Walk 122kg per hand 20 metres.10 metres drop and turn.

Event 6 - Atlas Stone Run 100kg(48") - 110kg(48") - 120kg(48") - 135kg(48")- 150kg(40")

1st Prize = £250

I`ve been Mark Clegg

And this is VikingrBlog @

vikingr-clothing.com

 







A little Background in Vikingr

 vikingr-clothing.com -  website

I`m gonna start a blog on here for the brand .. So the people closest to me can follow our progress and Get things not only cheaper but limited edition stuff too.. Also be running some competitions where you can win some free stuff.

I`m going to be updating with photos and videos over the next couple of days so bear with me..

First of all for the people that don`t know the Vikingr Strongman Team are as follows..

TEAM

Vikingr Strongman Clothing LTD was set up by Mark Clegg(50%) and Lee Chadwick(50%)  on 1/10/2011 ..
Mark Clegg  - The man behind the steering wheel without a licence.

Lee Chadwick  - T Shirt Design and Website, Facebook, Twitter, and all that bollox.

Sam Chesney  - Chief of operations.. The man who makes your Tshirts.

Richard Bardsley   - Design.. Richard was working on big packaging projects like ASDA`s travel range when he was kidnapped by Mark and forced to take photographs of rusty strongman equipment. He`s been with us since and he`s not sure why
.
Gaz Boulton - Logistics and Dogs body .. My driving bitch basically
.
Susan Clegg - I give me mam a job working with Sam on making the Tshirts.

Mike Francis - All our Screen Printing.

Mark Felix and Graeme Hicks - Vikingr sponsored athletes and these boys do a great job of promoting Vikingr thoughout the land.

Events

So far Vikingr Strongman Clothing have sponsored the following events -

Uk Team Strongman 2011 - Competition Advertisment board and comp day tshirts.

Olympic Dragons 3 Comp day tshirts and trophies.

St Ives Strongest Man 2011 - Cost towards trophies.

St Ives Strongest Man under 90kg 2012 - Comp day Tshirts and Prize Money.

Champions of the future 2 - Comp day Tshirts and Trophies.

Englands Euro Qualifyer 2012 - Comp day Tshirts.

Northern Englands Strongest Man 2012 - Comp Day Tshirts and £250 Prize Money.

And events we are proud to sponsor in the future include -

under 80kg Britains Strongest Man 2012
 
under 90kg Englands Strongest Man 2012

under 105kg Englands Strongest Man 2012

under 105kg Britains Strongest Man 2012

Olympic Dragons 4

The BWL British Championships and Olympic Trials 2012

Vikingr Logo

Original Logo designed by Lee Chadwick 31/07/2012. We loved the Viking face and it was really good on large prints but on smaller prints it became blurry. Our plotting machine couldn`t handle the shaded areas and we had to simplify it if we was going to continue making vinyl tshirts which was an important part of our competition sponsorship plan ..

So it had to go and Richard re designed it early 2012 just before we registered it for "TM" or "C" can never remember which one applies to us ?

From this Richard chose our Back Tag Graphic.

The Vikingr Vision

Our long term aim is to become a recognised brand with-in the Strength Sports. So our first move was to get in a national publication so we could throw our net as far as we could and my very first meeting with a magazine and we nailed a 6 months 4 country deal with both "Muscle and Fitness"

and "Flex" in Uk, France, Germany and Holland. This is proving fantastic publicity to launch us. Our second stop was to sponsor some great UK Strongman to be the face of the brand and after a brief Chat with Denny Felix she agreed that 4 times World Strongest Man athlete Mark Felix would be our man.

 Mark Felix in the "He who has Strength Tshirt

 Solvi Peturson and Mark Felix





Mark has taken around 25 pictures of himself and other strongmen with our Branded Tshirts on and continues to do so .

So Mark was doing a great job on the road internationally BUT we were keen to get another guy on board who was a little less known but someone who would become was of the best Strongmen in Great Britain.. That Man is Graeme "Hixxy" Hicks ! The primary objective was for Hixxy to get to the Worlds Strongest 105kg BUT earlier this year he decided that the Heavyweights was the road to take and he`s making rapid progress ...

Hixxy with a 186kg Log 

Hixxy 305kg Squat triple

Hixxy 420kg Yoke

Take it from Mark Clegg ! Hixxy is going all the way to WSM and Vikingr will be there to support him every step of the way.

We also use James Wilmot on some of our adverts even though he`s taken to Bodybuilding.. The guys got ripped up six pack and 22" arms and the Vikingr Tshirts fit nice. He`s going to be helping out with Hix at some trade shows ect in the future ..

So advertising is going ok and the magazine generate decent sales but most of our sales come through www.vikingr-clothing.com and that is due for an update with the summer designs real soon ..

Sponsoring competitions is really important to me as is generating grass roots level in all three of the strength sports and soon there will be opportunity for people to apply for The "Vikingr competition package" which will allow sponsors to get free competition Tshirts and Trophies as long as they are working with first timers in any of the sports .. This will allow the promoter to offer a
"Free" or "Cheaper" entry fee to competitors to generate more participation..

I really do want people to understand what the brand is all about and i`m not saying people have to rush out and buy from us but the relationship is there. Name another brand that is helping strength sports out at grass level ? none.

Competition at elite level is also important to us and we have plans in the future to bring a "Vikingr Deadlift Championship" and "Vikingr Weightlifting Chmpionship" BUT our first project is in 2013 and is the :-

"Vikingr Strongman"

Stay tuned for more details here at Vikingr Strongman Blog. It will be a Heavyweight Strongman Event with none standardised and Viking themed events.... Qualifyers on day one and Final on Day two with a very nice prize fund ..





MORE SOON ............... LE PUB BECONS

Welcome to our blog, here we will keep you updated with whats happening at Vikingr...

we will keep you afloat of all our special offers and all of the competitions we will be sponsoring, also we will post updates of our very own athletes!