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
Host city Sanya, China
Winner Phil Pfister
Nations participating14
Athletes participating25

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

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

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

Heat 1
# 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
# Name Nationality Pts
1 Terry Hollands United Kingdom 22.5
2 Raivis Vidzis Latvia 21.5
3 Jesse Marunde USA 20.5
4 Dave Ostlund USA 19.5
5 Gu Yan Li China 5

[3]

Heat 3
# Name Nationality Pts
1 Phil Pfister USA 21.5
2 Mark Felix UK 18
3 Janne Virtanen Finland 17.5
4 Elbrus Nigmatullin Russia 17
5 Darren Sadler United Kingdom 16

[3]

Heat 4
# 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 USA 12.5

[3]

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

[3]

Final

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 UK 21.5
3 Phil Pfister USA 21
4 Tarmo Mitt Estonia 17
5 Don Pope USA 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 USA 41
3 Don Pope USA 32
4 Mark Felix UK 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[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 just over half a second, meaning the 2006 WSM would go right down to the wire in the Atlas Stones and, with just half a point separating them, they would be drawn to compete together. The Atlas Stones proved to be extremely tight but Pudzianowksi managed to gain a slight lead by the fourth stone. However, Pfister managed to catch up on the last stone and placed his stone on the platform 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 UK 38.5
5 Tarmo Mitt Estonia 38
6 Sebastian Wenta Poland 36.5
7 Terry Hollands United Kingdom 30
8 Jarek Dymek Poland 29
9 Raivis Vidzis Latvia 26
10 Sławomir Toczek Poland 20.5

References and descriptions
  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. "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
2005 World's Strongest Man		 World's Strongest Man Succeeded by
2007 World's Strongest Man
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