Its a wrap. 24 year old Novikov wins,and wins big.
A 24-year-old World's Strongest Man winner in this era of strongman?
That means this kid was born in 1996, or late 1995 at the earliest.
I was saddened to see Canada's Jean-Francois Caron fall out of the running after the log ladder [that name is weird - but the multiple-log lifts for time event], starting at around 120kg this year, I think, but I don't know what the heaviest log was. J-F placed second last on that event, and took him completely out of the running.
Let's just say, when all was said and done, I figured it would be a repeat but his 4th place finish last year, but I felt that there was a possibility that he could make the podium, with a 3rd place finish.
I once read that 3rd place finishers are happier than 2nd place finishers, because 3rd place finishers only narrowly make the podium, whereas 2nd place finishers narrowly miss a 1st place championship victory.
Looks like none of that was the case here though - this was just a clear victory for Novikov. Not a close call. And at 24 years old? WTH?
He looks young in the face too [at least in strongman terms]. He looks like he may be losing his hair *slightly*, and is only 6'1"??
Am I missing something here? Lol.
Amazing work for the young Ukrainian!
Thanks for the update, Body-Buildah...looking over the scores, it looks like the only way J-F would have won with two events to go, would have been:
[1] beating Brian Shaw in the stone lifts. This, while definitely possible, is not something I am aware has happened before [I'd have to check]. Both are good at stones...but Brian Shaw is better [and aside from The Stoltman Bros, is the best in the world].
[2] Gaining a full FIVE additional points on the log ladder. Basically, going from second last on that event, to 4th place. He would have only been able to achieve that by lifting one additional log than he currently did [4 of 5 instead of 3 of 5], and by doing so in a faster time than he successfully completed the first three log lifts.
However...if J-F had completed the same 3 of 5 logs he lifted at a time 20 seconds faster, or completed the stone run 5.5 seconds faster, and completed the log ladder 10.5 seconds faster, he would have obtained the two points he needed to narrowly make a 2nd place finish.
I wanted J-F to win this year - I really did. He's been Canada's Strongest Man forever now - well...since 2011. I don't know if they held the contest this year, or if they will, but he won CSM straight through from 2011 to 2019. Placing 4th last year, with everyone who beat him last year not competing this year, making them out of the running, I really thought JF could have taken home the W.
In hindsight...overhead press was never really J-F's thing, and having just recently turned 38, I don't think it's going to become it now.
Next year, the young Oleksii Novikov will have improved that much more, and Mateusz Kieliszkowski will be back and recovered, and he is very young too - only 27, making him just over 11 years younger than J-F.
Ah, too bad about JF not winning the title of World's Strongest Man...he is definitely the strongest man in Canadian history, unless we are to believe the legend of Louis Cyr [personally, I don't]. And being NOT pushing 7-feet tall, I didn't think he would ever win.
Am I reading stats right when I say that Novikov is only 6'1"? So he's 24 years old and "only" [for strongman terms] 6'1", yet won the whole show this year, possibly as the youngest in history [Jon Pall Sigmarsson was also 24, but I don't know which one was younger to the exact number of months/days], and beat out established deadlifters, who literally took 10+ years of solid world level strongman competing to hit a deadlift of 1,000-lb?
HOW is this even possible? I know Ukrainians have a rich history of producing excellent strongmen, but this makes NO SENSE. WTF happened here? Am I missing something? HOW is Novikov this good at this age? Is it just genetics and hard training, or do they have steroids in Eastern Europe that don't exist elsewhere? Lol.
