Strongman Archives

Only three weeks after the Giants Live Strongman Classic, some of the best international athletes were back in action on Sunday at the Giants Live World Open. Although the show was very different, the usual suspects found themselves at the top of the standings... But this time, Evan Singleton reigned supreme.

World Deadlift Championships

The evening started with the World Deadlift Championships. With the unfortunate withdrawals of Peiman Maheripour and Asko Karu, all eyes were on Pavlo Nakonechnyy and Ivan Makarov in this event, where the athletes were chasing the 505 kg mark.

Despite Nakonechnyy and Makarov both failing to break the Max Deadlift world record, the event was highly entertaining, with seven men completing a 453.5 kg / 1,000 lb lift - a personal best for six of them. In the end, Ivan Makarov took the win with 475 kg, Nakonechnyy having skipped that weight to save energy for his 505 kg attempt.

The three men who would eventually reach the podium in Manchester - Evan Singleton, Adam Bishop and Oleksii Novikov - all managed the 453.5 kg weight.

On With the Show

In the Carry & Drag, all three of them set blistering times, but Singleton was quite a bit faster, sprinting through the course in 27.38 seconds for the win, just under four seconds ahead of Bishop.

24-year-old Pavlo Nakonechnyy wowed the crowd again in this event. The Ukrainian was well ahead of Adam Bishop's pace, but he fell multiple times and ended up losing a shoe, which cost him a lot of time in the chain drag.

Nakonechnyy was expecting big points in the Viking Press, but his 9 reps weren't enough to impress the top three men. Novikov took the lead with 11 reps before Bishop matched him and almost got a twelfth lift, had it not been for his triceps failing him. However, it was all Singleton again. The resident of Kentucky managed 12 easy reps, and looked like he had more in the tank.

The 30 kg Front Hold finally shook up the order a bit, with Gabriel Peña of Texas taking the win with a time of 46.85 seconds. Novikov and Singleton were not far behind but Bishop slipped a bit in this event, meaning that the podium places looked like this going into the Atlas Stones: Singleton 35, Novikov 32.5, Bishop 30.5.

Five stones ranging from 100 to 180 kg are no joke, but it may be time for Giants Live to roll in a heavier rock. Apart from deadlift specialist Ivan Makarov, the nine other athletes completed the set in under 30 seconds.

Newcomer Nakonechnyy made the stones look tremendously easy (19.76 seconds), and he gave his first interview afterwards. The young Ukrainian seemed to enjoy the loud British crowd... Could this successfull experience sway him away from powerlifting? To the delight of strongman fans around the world, it seems like the answer is yes.

"Now, [my focus] is only on strongman... and on the deadlift world record", he said.

Adam Bishop then stepped up and beat Nakonechnyy by just under one second, but it was not enough to win the whole show as Singleton and Novikov both finished in under 21 seconds. Still, Bishop was able to leapfrog Novikov for the runner-up position in Manchester.

For Evan Singleton, it was a first international competition victory since the 2019 Giants Live North American Open, just over two years ago. Master of ceremonies Neil Pickup asked the American when he would be able to win the prestigious World's Strongest Man title.

"It might be sooner than you think, with the way I'm going", Singleton confidently replied.

What's Ahead

The top three finishers from the Giants Live World Open are all going to Colorado in two weeks for the second edition of the Shaw Classic (August 27-28), while the Giants Live tour continues a week later (September 4) with the Europe's Strongest Man competition in Leeds, England.

Photo: SBD Apparel