After the first day of competiton, all five groups have completed the first event, while three of the five have completed the keg toss. After a mild, overcast day being threatened by residual storms from Tropical Storm Hanna, here are a description of the events and the results I was able to get.
The first event was the loading medley. Each competitor had to carry two 105 kilo beer kegs and two 250 kilo sandbags across about 15 meters of sand and load them onto a platform.
Group 1:
1. Mark Felix
2. Derek Poundstone
3. Jason Bergmann
It looked like Stefan Solvi Peturssun hurt his hand. Luckily, his group didn't have the keg press today and at the 2nd event, he had it pretty heavily wrapped. His group has fingal fingers tomorrow, and whether he competes tomorrow remains a big question mark.
Group 2:
1. Phil Pfister
2. Sebastian Wenta
Oli Thompson and Richard Skog both looked impressive. Phil is bigger than ever, weighing in at what looks like 375. He is going to be a serious threat this year. He is absolutely immense and he's fit.
Group 3:
1. Terry Hollands
2. Tarmo Mitt
Janne looked fast, but not fast enough to beat Terry or Tarmo. Kevin just missed loading the last sandbag in the allotted time.
Group 4:
1. Arild Haugen
2. Mariusz Pudzianowski
3. Lawrence Shalei (sp?)
4. Brian Shaw
5. Louis-Phillipe Jean
6. Brian Siders
Arild came out to impress and the top 4 were all really close. 2nd place had to go to the video truck, with Mariusz edging Loz by 4/100 of a second. Siders only loaded one keg, but still has the squat and press coming up, so all is not lost. The prediction of this heat being wildly unpredictable is proving to be true.
Group 5:
1. Dave Ostlund
2. Magnus Samuelsson
3. Travis Ortmayer
4. Jimmy Marku
5. Raivis Vidzis
6. Florian Trimpl
Dave dominated, putting up the fastest time of anyone in any of the heats. Magnus and Travis weren't far behind. With group 4 as the most unpredictable heat, group 5 is proving to be a mighty battle between 6 very experienced veterans.
This year's keg toss is different from previous years. Instead of having 10 empty, full-sized kegs, there were 8 sand-filled pony kegs ranging from 15 kilos to 22 kilos. The bar looked to be a bit higher than previous years, as well. It seems that the change from full kegs to the short kegs has noticably impacted the results as well. Where shorter competitors were at a disadvantage with the full kegs, the shorter kegs are allowing the shorter guys to get the full range of motion and utilize their explosive power to toss the kegs over the bar. Very few people got all 8 kegs.
Group 2:
1. Johannes Arsjo - 36.8 seconds
2. Pfister - 47 seconds
3. Skog - 7 kegs
4. Thompson - 6 kegs
5. Wenta - 4 kegs
6. Ide - 3 kegs
Group 3:
1. Tarmo Mitt
2. Nee
3. 4-way tie between Nigmatullin, Caron, Virtanen, and Hollands with 6 kegs
Group 5:
1. Travis Ortmayer - super fast
2. Marku - All 8 kegs, but significantly slower
3. Ostlund - 7 kegs
4. 3-way tie between Trimpl, Samuelsson, and Vidzis with 6 kegs
Another story is that Mariusz appears to have twisted his ankle before today's events started. It's very swollen and he's visibly tender when he's trying to walk on it.
Posted by Ben Hanson at 6:19 PM