choice of champions

Steve Gardener, first place overall, here at IronMind´s Apollon´s Axle. The Mobster won with an amazing 492% and 4 first places in 5 events. A fierce competitor, never losing focus.

Gabriel Sum checks the grippers. He came in second place overall and showed lots of talent at an early age. This was Gabriels first athletic event EVER. He qualifed by getting certified as a captain of crush. I am sure that he can go a long way if he does not burn out himself.

Third place went to Martin Ressel, here at the pinchevent. Martin did not have too much time to train and worked with equipment that was different from the one used in this competition. Placing third this way isn´t too bad then, I guess!
In my opinion it would be great to have an improved setup or better blocks for the pinchevent, this setup lengthens the competition a lot. Someone even got injured because of the square edge.

Sam Solomi (left) from Great Britain, the youngest contestant on this day, got coached from Steve Gardener and placed forth, winnig the first event. On the right is Jorge González who was hurt after a strongman contest.
Florian Kellersamm came in on fifth place. He was injured, too, so I regard him for having the guts and sportsmanship to compete even if he knew that he could not work at full capacity.
Johan Albrektsson and Matti Heiskanen were just one percent apart on 6th and 7th place. The reigning German champion, Stefan Falke, unfortunately did not have his best day and finished on place 8, places 9 and 10 went to the Spanish competitiors Jose Jara and Jorge González. Just watch the Inch Dumbbell-Video (below) to see Jorge´s strength!

I liked it a lot and you all are welcome to Haltern again but let´s see who will hold it next time. I do not think the athletes want to go to the same country two years in a row.

I have to say thanks again to Burkhard Macht for helping to organize and judge. Sandra took loads of my shoulders and also did Martin Schlupp whom we will see on the platform in some way.
Walter Kurda did a lot of work, helped with plates and took the pix of this page. Thanks a lot, Walter! He also put some videos on the net:

Gripper Pinch Apollon´s Axle
One Hand Deadlift Rolling Thunder Inch Dumbbell

	Gripper	Pinch	Axle	One Hand	R Thunder	Total
Steve Gardener	92,4%	100,0%	100,0%	100,0%	100,0%	492,4%	1
Gabriel Sum	97,5%	94,9%	97,1%	96,0%	85,1%	470,5%	2
Martin Ressel	94,4%	91,3%	94,1%	95,0%	86,3%	461,0%	3
Sam Solomi	100,0%	96,5%	88,2%	84,0%	80,1%	448,9%	4
Florian Kellersmann	94,4%	84,2%	91,2%	95,0%	73,9%	438,6%	5
Johan Albrektsson	94,4%	89,7%	85,3%	90,0%	72,6%	432,0%	6
Matti Heiskanen	90,3%	97,4%	88,2%	85,0%	70,1%	431,0%	7
Stefan Falke	85,6%	84,4%	88,2%	91,0%	70,1%	419,4%	8
Jose Jara	88,7%	81,6%	85,3%	86,0%	77,6%	419,2%	9
Jorge González	88,7%	78,9%	89,7%	82,0%	71,4%	410,7%	10

More results