Vikingr : Strong Wear From The Frozen North: BSM 80kg Year of the Dragon.

Britains Strongest Man under 80kg ... Year of the Dragon !

Today Vikingr Strongman Clothing had the pleasure of sponsoring and running the first ever Britain's Strongest Man for the Under 80kg Category ...

15 Guys turned up to battle it out and we saw some incredible performances that i must admit "BLOWN ME AWAY" !!!!

The Events were

Event 1 - Yoke(270kg) and Duck Walk Medley (150kg) 15 metres each way.

Event 2 - Loglift Medley - 90kg Thin Log - 100kg IFSA - 110kg IFSA - 110kg 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 - Sand Bag Carry and Sled Drag Medley.

Event 5 - Giant Rail Sleeper Farmers Walk 112kg per hand 20 metres.10 metres drop and turn.

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

Well what can be said ... Last September Shane Jerman Won the reputable "Olympic Dragon" under 90kg Strongman tournament against a 30 man field .. He shown that he`s through being a "nearly man" and stood on the number on spot for the first time in a massive strongman competition ..

Shane being the the current "Dragon" has carried alot of pressure on his shoulders coming into this first ever BSM under 80kg people feeling that he has to be the odds on favorite for the title and £250 prize .. Well this year is the "Chinese year of the Dragon" and so Shane proven today out on the Strongman Battle field ..

Shane tore apart the first event clearing the 270kg Yoke and 150kg Duckwalk in a super fast 16.44 seconds to take an early lead from unheard of (To me anyway) strongman in James Wolstencroft who managed a quick time of 20.97 seconds and third was Sean Cookney in 21.55seconds ..But the biggest surprise to me was that all 15 guys finished the course and from that moment i knew that we have got a really strong field today .. Lets not forget 270kg is almost three and a half times bodyweight for these little guys and they made it look like taking an empty bar for a run ..

Next was the Log Medley and Mike Neale was in the lead and although he cleaned the 4th Log weighing in at a massive 115kg he just couldn`t quite press it ..Shane came out with his usual look of confidence and took 3 easy one motions on the first three logs and just paused on his chest to make sure of his 4th log in a very confident professional manner to take his 2nd event win of the day .. The top 3 at this point were Shane on a maximum 30pts with James and Danny Ashcroft just trailing him ..

The Deadlift was slow to get going but i`m sure by the athletes expressions that many personal bests were broken today .. and as we went past 300kg we only had 2 athletes left and 7 had to share points with a very impressive Deadlift of 280kg.. Riain Morrison was first out on the 310kg which he pulled successfully which then Shane did with similar ease . Then Riain Just could`nt break the floor with 320kg which lets not forget is 4 times their own bodyweight !!!!! Madness ! Shane did pull the 320kg and secured his third event win and well on his way to the title .

Riain Morrison Deadlifted 310kg for Second Place.

Shane Jerman lifting the 4 times his own bodyweight pull of 320kg

Next we had the 108kg Sand bag load the 190kg Sled pull .. A really tricky sand bag that had recently been used for the 105kg big boys .. They had to take the bag 10metres then tackle the sled for 10 metres .Lee Sansom was the big shock on this event and because of a low ranking on the previous event had to go first on this one but he made an awesome time of 36.07 seconds and he led for most of the round untill he was just tipped at the end by Shanes fourth Event win of the day in 33.81 seconds ..

The top 5 after event 4 was - Shane Jerman with 60points, James with 47.5, Riain with 44, Danny with 43.5 and Shaun Vause was creeping up on the outside with 40 pts ..

The Giant Farmers Walk was next 10 metres one way drop and turn the 10 metres back .. This was another quick event with everyone finishing the event and really fast times were produced by Shaun Vause 14.41 seconds and Damian Larrington 16.53 seconds .. I just couldn`t see how anyone could go quicker than Shaun so i was convinced Shane wouldn`t get another 1st place but he did ! an absolutley rapid time of 12.53 secs - He was like lightening .... He had now had an unassailable lead of 75 points meaning he didn`t actually have to lift a single Atlas Stone to win the title .. BUT he did ..

Atlas Stones ....Mike Neale, Danny Ashcroft, Paul Macaffrey and James Wolstencroft had all done the first four Stones and had a feel of the massive 151kg Stone but nobody had even lapped it in, the diameter was catching them out as well as the fact it weighed 25 stone didn`t help ..

Shane once again came out and made easy work of the first 4 stones and didn`t struggle much more with the last one to end the competition on an awesome high and keep his perfect score .. 90points out of a possible 90points ..

Not a bad day at the office ..

Shane today was immense ! he truly is the best under 80kg Strongman we have in Britain and nobody could possibly say otherwise after todays performance ..

BUT there were other guys who we equally as great ! they battled till the death and they deserve massive praise for their fantastic efforts !! James Wolstencraft was brilliant all day ! Shaun Vause was equally as brilliant and at around 74kg bodyweight would get laughed out of a Pub if he claimed he could do the feats of strength he can achieve ! I have always enjoyed watched Danny Ashcroft he gets so mentally fired up and give his all and i always want him to do well ..Paul Macaffrey coming back from knee surgery give it his all ! .. I know Mike Neale was disappointed but i think with a certain amount of work on his weaker events will be well up there next year . A special mention has to be made of Riain Morrison who was in awesome form and just made a mistake on the Atlas Stones and really ruined his scorecard but he`s young and he`ll learn ..

Special mentions could be made of so many people they all did fantastic ..

Final Scores -