Britain’s Disabled Strongman 2017
We have just returned from a fantastic weekend to Kent, South-East of London UK. Britain’s Disabled Strongman 2017 was held in Meopham, and turned out to be a very good event, with lots of amazing athletes taking part.
Promoter and owner of the competition was Gary Clarke, who we previously have featured on our site. Follow the link to read more about him. Despite having done this work, Gary also participated as an athlete, and delivered a magnificent performance.
Of course, putting on a show like this requires more than one man, and we would like to express our admiration and thankfulness to all the people helping out with preparations, the event itself, and the clearing up afterwards. The competition was judged by Magnús Ver Mangnússon, and also attended by Arnar Már Jónnson. Great assistance was also being given by Toby George and several members of his family, who all worked hard before, during and after the event. And also a great thanks to Pete Dorren for all the help during the various events, working so hard to move the heavy equipment around to get it ready for the athletes. Phil Cannon delivered newly manufactured equipment for the competition, and Adam Lee was present to make sure there was professional photos and video from the day. And as so many times before, Les Wiltshire delivered a good job as the emcee for the competition.
Karen opened the competition as the first athlete, with deadlift from 13″ blocks. This is the event where she set her last World Record during the Arnold Classics in Columbus, OH, back in March this year. Not holding back, her very first lift this day raised that to 127.5 kg, and the first WR of Britain’s Disabled Strongman 2017 was a fact. More weight was quickly added to the bar, and a minute later she again set a new WR at 130 kg. There was no holding back, and Karen then asked for 140 kg on the bar. Seconds later the Britain’s Disabled Strongman 2017 could announce the current WR to be 140 kg. For those of our readers more accustomed to imperial measures, this equals 308 lbs.
Karen went from one personal success to the next throughout the competition. Second event was sled pull, 150 kg (330,7 lbs) over 20 meter, and timed in at 47,39 seconds.
Third out was the yoke, 120 kg (264,6 lbs) over 20 meter distance. Karen raced this across in 22,93 seconds.
Then came the dumbell medley, with weights at 10-12-14-16-20 kg, which Karen successfully completed in 28,54 seconds.
Final event was as always the atlas stones, and yet again a medley. Stones at the weight of 30-40-50-60 kgs were laid out when Karen came up to the starting line. The 60 kg stone proved a little too heavy on the day, but the others came up quite easily, with a finishing time on the 50 kg (110,2 lbs) stone of 18,29 seconds.
Finally we need to mention the other athletes taking part, many of which we had not had the pleasure of meeting before. But a great crowd they were! Some doing their first ever competition in this sport. The efforts delivered by each and every one made sure Britain’s Disabled Strongman 2017 turned out to be a competition consisting of only winners. We are really looking forward to meeting all of them again at future competitions and events.
