World's Strongest Man qualifiers 4 and 5

[redfiona99]

With Tarmo Mitt (Est), Boris Haroldsson (Iceland), Jarek Dymek (Pol), Domnic Fillou (Can) and Kevin Nee (US).

Dymek has the flu, and collapsed in the first event. A full on total faint type of collapse. No-one is surprised when he chooses to carry on.

Given that Tarmo Mitt used to be a computer geek, Mariusz was a PE teacher and one of the Ukrainian ones has written books on missiles, I get very annoyed when people think that they're brainless idiots.

Dave Osterlund is lurking cheering Kevin Nee on.

Haroldsson dropped one of the stones on his head in training and joked that he was trying to break it so that they didn't have to do the event. Apparently this kind of accident happens often to him.

Dymek and Mitt through to the final.




Magnus Samuelson (Swe), Odd Haugen (Nor), Sebastian Wenta (Pol), Slawek Tocwek (Pol) and Josh Thigpen (US).

Please, allow me a moment of amazement at Odd Haugen, 56 and still going. Wenta, meanwhile, was apparently the Polish shot-put champion at some point.

Magnus's back is still not right, so he's skipping the dead lift. It then gave out totally in the car lift so he withdrew. He was being interviewed and, it's obvious that he knows exactly how injured he is (this was before he pulled out) but he wants to carry on for his fans. And me and Nan were nearly shouting at the TV that we'd love him just as much if he gave up because disc problems are not to be messed with.

One of the interesting things was how much better the Scandanavians come across than the Americans. I think it's because they're much more self-depreciating and make jokes. It's not that they're not serious about what they do, they just aren't over the top about it.

Wenta and Tocwek through to the final, which means that there's 4 Poles in it, which should get interesting, given that, like the Americans, they hang out together and cheer each other on, and give each other hints, tips, advice and the occasional insult (seriously, Mariusz was giving Tocwek hell for not trying hard enough in the car lift).