tatt fra marunde muscle
Quote:Originally Posted by Garrick Daft
Derek is pacing himself and learning and trying new techniques through these first 3 events. He is looking forward to the deadlift and wants to beat Mark Felix on that event. The Viking Press will see a different technique because facing outward puts much stress on his back discs.. so he has formulated a plan to adapt, and we will see how that turns out tomorrow. Derek will be turning up the heat a little tomorrow as he smells blood and desires to see how hard the other competitors are willing to fight and how much of their bodies they are willing to give up for the first place slot. Derek was shouldering the 275 lb sandbags and running with them in the sand, which was not the most efficient way to carry them... he burned through a tremendous amount of energy and did not finish the last sandbag due to complete exhaustion, which is unusual if you know Derek because his conditioning unreal. Derek came back and destroyed the fingers, and his gloves were coming off of his hand during the event...so he was having a difficult time gripping. In the truck pull he tried a new technique to utilize his hip power more and slipped a few steps, but after a 1/3 of the way through, he sunk in and his speed was incredible for the last 2/3 of the distance. He realized some errors for this event and is set to fix them during the finals for the plane pull. That is Derek, always determined to improve himself and eager to learn from mistakes. He has not placed out of the top 2 for his heat so far... and plans to keep up that performance throughout.
Bergmann is in Derek's heat and is in the hunt , along with Derek and Felix for the top 2 spots. If Bergmann successfully can maintain his current form, then Felix will have a tough time making it... but the pressure is there and the battle will be fierce. Bergmann is great on overhead, deadlift, and stones...and Felix is great on deadlift and stones, and has been working overtime on his overhead... this is a battle that many are watching closely. Bergmann showed his conditioning in the medley by finishing it quickly, and he ripped through all 5 fingers, while Mark got through 4. Bergmann shouldered the 5th finger and bulldozed it up and over... so he is showing his aggressiveness and desire to qualify.
Kevin Nee is 5 points from 2nd and 8 points from 1st in his heat. Tarmo Mitt is leading with Hollands in 2nd. Kevin has all his favorite events ahead of him. He said that he plans to psycho and leave nothing in the tank during each event. Kevin suffered a setback with his placement in the medley...ran out of time just as the last sandbag was being rolled up on the platform, if he had just a half second more then he would have gotten credit for finishing the event rather then just for loadin 3 out of 4 implements. He is more determined then ever though and is looking in tremendous shape, there is a chance he can make the finals...but Kevin will have to use all of his hard earned strength to get there. Let's send some prayers and hopes his way to help him out.
Brian Shaw is locked in a battle with Arild Haugen for 2nd place in his heat. Shaw is getting more and more aggressive as the time goes on and chants and yells before every event like a man possessed. He posted the best time of the day on the fingers out of all 30 athletes. Arild posted the best time out of all 30 athletes in the medley. Shaw placed 2nd in the truck pull behind Mariusz... but Mariusz laid on the ground after his pull, while Shaw roared that it was too easy and wanted more..haha. Arild just missed finishing the truck pull as the whistle blew inches from the finish line... Arild is in tremendous shape and conditioning. All of the Fortissimus athletes are surprised at how much he has improved his shape and power since. He has incredible power. He did not finish the fingers and the truck pull, but tomorrow with the squat and overhead..he will have a chance to push Brian Shaw harder. Shaw is more determined then ever though and invites the Viking to a battle of will.
Siders is proving that going from powerlifting to strongman takes longer then 3 weeks...which is the amount of time he had to prepare for this contest. Everyone is anticipating the squat event and Siders hopes to set the record on this event. Not much to say about the medley, fingers, and truck pull except that is was not pretty. Siders is set to resume training for IPF Worlds later this year, and then surprisingly said that he wants to do a Super Series contest in order to qualify for next years WSM, and of course he is looking forward to the Arnold.
Travis Ortmayer.... put nitrous in a sixteen cylinder engine and you start to get an idea of the blistering speed he is displaying. He was actually on pace to set a great time on the medley, but his keg fell on its side when he loaded it and he spent a few valuable seconds fixing it... he still managed the 4th best time out of all 30 athletes...but was unfortunate to be in the race with Ostlund and Magnus..who both set the 2nd and 3rd best time out of all 30... so the true speed of Travis's run was masked in a few ways. Keg Toss was indescribable... but I will attempt to explain. Derek decides to help get Travis fired up by doing the "trap slap" on him...something that they have since kept doing to each other before every event... a true show of support and comradery (sp?).. Derek slaps Travis and Travis rolls his head, closes his eyes, and when they open... the Ortmayer beast shows it's face (have to see it in person to truly appreciate the white fire that shines in his eyes when this is happens)... the whistle blows and Travis rips the 1st keg off of the ground like he was angry that it didn't launch up on it's own and he was gonna make it pay.. if you blinked then you missed the next 6 kegs. The last keg was abused a little more then the others as Travis decided to pick it up, slam it into the ground again while yelling at it, then he pulled back and sent it to the graveyard with the rest of the dead kegs...Travis posts the best time out of all 30 athletes and shaved 7 seconds off of the previous best time. Everyone went crazy as the energy he put off went through the area.
The 50,000 lb coal truck pull was won by Travis also, and he posted the best time in his group... not sure about overall with the coal truck but I think his was top 2 out of 30. Travis now has to decide whether to keep up the pace or throttle back in order to explode with more intensity in the finals.... Travis is definitely setting the WSM on fire though, with the glee of a pyromaniac... haha
Dave Ostlund posted the 2nd best time out of 30 athletes with the medley event and is in fantastic shape. He is in great shape and has a very determined look about him. Dave seems to have analyzed every detail of every event for this contest and has a great gameplan lined out. He really wants to go head to head with Travis Ortmayer in the Atlas Stones event to continue a rivalry in the King of the Stones arena that has existed for a long time. That will be a legendary showdown at the WSM! Dave missed getting the 8th keg. He had to do the 6th and 7th keg a few times over and had little energy left for the 8th. He managed to get the 8th keg high enough, but it did not arch back enough... which was the underlying problem in a lot of the keg performances... the heavier kegs required that you step back a little more in order to get the arch. Also athletes blew more power then needed with the lighter kegs and had little left for the heavier ones. This happened to Sebastian Wenta, as he said that his quads and back had no more power left in them to finish the event... also running in the sand for the medley zapped his power too he said.
Pfister is putting on a great performance. He is being consistant and making great times in the events. His hometown crowd is firing him up something fierce and he seems determined to not let them down. I don't think that he will have any problem getting into the finals at this point. Pfister is very strong though and is determined more then ever to win and do so in his hometown and state. He is very fun to watch as he goes crazy before every event and the crowd is very loud for him. I can't remember what he has left in his heat but I don't think he will have any problems.
Sorry to not fill in more on the other international athletes, I wanted to get the Americans filled in, as this is an exciting time and the whispers are circulating that 7 Americans could make the finals if everyone keeps performing at their best. The quiet excitement is in the air....
