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Day 3: Good lifts and great squats
On the third day of this year's MET-Rx World's Strongest Man event the stage was set up at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California.
Deadlift for weight
The first event of the day was the Deadlift. Contestants had to lift up a rack, filled with barrels, off the ground from a stabalized bent-over position. After each good lift another barrel was added, so that it reached the maximum weight of 345 kg after seven lifts.
Phil Pfister (USA) knew he didn't need to give it all to make it to the finals, so he only put up four lifts. But other strongmen were in need of a good result.
Jarek Dymek (Poland) showed a good effort and managed to handle all seven lifts in just over 30 seconds.There was some confusion after Derek Boyer's (Australia) attempt. He lifted the maximum weight and thought he had it. He started a speech directed to his fiancee. But he obviously didn't think of the fact, that the time was still running. So he lost about five seconds, before he finally let go of the rack.
Some great action was going on, seeing Mark Felix (England) and Kevin Nee (USA) lift the maximum weight faster than 30 seconds, but nobody was able to beat Terry Hollands today. The Englishman was able to get through the task in 26,99 seconds.
Squat Lift
The next event was the Squat Lift. There the athletes had to manage as many repetitions as possible with a starting weight of 256 kg. The maximum, after seven reps, was 340 kg. The faster the participants were able to do that, the better their result was.
Mark Westaby (England) put up six lifts in 33,80 seconds and was a little bit surprised of the result. "I don't know where I got the power from. I probably could have done the seventh as well", he said after regaining his breath.
"It was nothing!" an energized Boris Haraldsson (Iceland) screamed out after his great bout. He lifted the whole weight and finished in 22,83 seconds, only to be beaten by two other excellent athletes.
Jimmy Marku (England) and Mariusz Pudzianowski (Poland) were starring in today's performance of the day. Fighting for the lead in the same group both men managed to lift all the weight. One of them was a little quicker though. Pudzianowski finished in 21,38 seconds just barely after Marku's 20,83. Asked about his feelings Jimmy Marku only replied: "It was quite some fun out there."
Overhead Safe Lift
For the last event of the day the athletes had to lift up two safes, that were clamped together, over their heads as many times as possible. The count for this event stopped after 75 seconds.
Phil Pfister looked very strong but didn't seem to overpower. He lifted the rack 16 times. Afterwards he summarized the day as follows: "I was playing it safe today. It has been a tough competition so far. Everybody has gotten better."
Tarmo Mitt (Estonia) and Jarek Dymek were also in good shape and managed to put up 18 and 17 reps.
New record holder in this event is Sebastian Wenta. A longshot for the finals before the event, the Pole increased his chances to reach it with his incredible result of 19 reps. Asked, if he is planning for the finals already he replied just like a real sportsman would: "Everybody here has the chance to reach the finals and so do I."