2006 World's Strongest Man

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.

2006 World's Strongest Man
Competition information
Dates14-23 September 2006
LocationSanya
Country China
Athletes participating25
Nations participating14
Champion(s)
United States Phil Pfister

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.

Format

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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

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

  • Farmer's Walk
  • Keg Toss
  • Car Dead Lift
  • Car Walk
  • Overhead Stone Lift
  • Barrel Loading Race
  • Cannonball Carry & Sledge Drag
  • Fingal Fingers[1]
  • Power Stairs
  • Bus Pull
  • Atlas Stones[2]

Qualifying heats

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Heat 1

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

[3]

Heat 2

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

[3]

Heat 3

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

[3]

Heat 4

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

[3]

Heat 5

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

[3]

Final

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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 28.5
2 Mark Felix   Grenada 21.5
3 Phil Pfister   United States 21
4 Tarmo Mitt   Estonia 17
5 Don Pope   United States 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 seconds. Remarkably, in the bus pull, none of the 10 finalists successfully finished the course, but Pfister managed to pull his bus just 12 centimetres further than Pudzianowski to win the event, leaving himself 1.5 points behind the Polish athlete. The top 5 after the second day of the final was:

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

Despite having won 3 events in a row, many people expected Pfister to struggle in the Car Walk given how poorly he had performed with the equipment in training.[5] Moreover, once Pudzianowski had set a blistering time of 27.4 seconds, no-one expected Pfister to get anywhere close to him, but to everyone's amazement, Pfister somehow managed to win the event by 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, they would be drawn to compete together as the very final pairing. As two of the best stone-lifters in the final, it was not a question of who managed to lift all five stones, but which of the two could manage it in the fastest time. The Atlas Stones proved to be extremely tight but Pudzianowski managed to gain a slight lead by the fourth stone. However, by taking a more angled stance on the final stone compared to Pudzianowski's more standard front-on technique which required him to shuffle a couple of steps towards the platform, Pfister managed to lift his stone and placed it on the platform in one movement, doing so a fraction of a second before Pudzianowski. The Pole, clearly stunned that he had been beaten, did not even correctly place the stone in the platform's groove and simply walked away in disgust as Pfister let out a great celebratory roar. 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 61
2 Mariusz Pudzianowski   Poland 57.5
3 Don Pope   United States 45
4 Mark Felix   Grenada 38.5
5 Tarmo Mitt   Estonia 38
6 Sebastian Wenta   Poland 36.5
7 Terry Hollands   England 30
8 Jarek Dymek   Poland 29
9 Raivis Vidzis   Latvia 26
10 Sławomir Toczek   Poland 20.5

References and descriptions

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  1. ^ "Description of Fingal Fingers on Official Website". Archived from the original on 2006-12-29. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
  2. ^ "Description of Atlas Stones on Official Website". Archived from the original on 2007-01-10. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
  3. ^ a b c d e "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". Archived from the original on 2007-02-10. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
  5. ^ WSM: Pfister Wins 4th Event in a Row!
  6. ^ "Results table for Final (Bottom of Page)". Archived from the original on 2007-01-10. Retrieved 2007-01-06.
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Preceded by 2006 World's Strongest Man Succeeded by