The first Iceman Challenge competition was held in Kuusamo Finland. The city of Kuusamo is located in the artic circle near Santa Claus land. Only a few top Strongman athletes were missed because of their injuries. However, the current World Strongest Man Zydrunas Savickas was present.
This was the first time in SCL history the competition was done outside in the middle of snow and ice. SCL has already agreed to do it in the same location for the next 3 years. Next year, the competition is planned for two days with a total of 10 events. Expected additional competitors will be from 10-12.
This year they had competitors from Australia, Syria, Lithuania, USA, England, Latvia, Finland and Ukraine. Some of these athletes has never seen snow before in their lives, so everyone can think how they felt when they landed to Kuusamo and stepped out of the plane and saw over a meter of snow everywhere and with temperatures below -5 degrees celcius.
However, all athletes were very excited and ready for the competition. It was done in 3 different location around the Ruka alps. Each location had two competition events. The first location called Ruka Peak were athletes did Human Ski Lift where they had to pull as arm over arm event 8 girls who had ski´s on their feets 20m uphill. Only two athletes did full distance. Zydrunas Savickas from Lithuania and Terry Hollands from England. The second event is the Crucifix where athletes had to hold 12,.kg weights on each arm as long as possible. The rule is that arms has to be sraight and not too high or too low. The winner was Warrick Brant from Australia.
After two events all athletes stepped in bus and traveled to Ruka Salonki where two competition events took place. Conan Circle is an old Strongman event and has a long history as one of the most toughest event for the athletes. The full circle is 62 meters, however the best result was done by Zydrunas Savickas under 60m. This result was extremely good and world top class result. After Conan, athletes did the Frame walk which is similar to Farmerswalk. The distance is 30 meters and the best time won. The best result was done by Terry Hollands.
The last two events was held in Ruka Safaris. In this location athletes did Medley and Deadlift for reps. In Medley, athletes had to lift first four sacks to a platform which was 160 cm high and then pull the truck distance of 15 meters uphill. In this event athletes were using special spikes in their shoes. The truck is the world biggest engine truck. None of the athletes pulled full distance, however current World Strongest Man Zydrunas Savickas pulled longest over 8 meters.
The Last event was the Deadlift for reps. Athletes lifted snow machine which was 300 kg as many times as possible in 60 sec time limit. The winner was Agris Kazelniks from Latvia.
The next SCL competition is to be done 24.4. in FIBO Germany.
Visit http://www.strongmancl.com for more information of events, athletes and photos and videos.
