Local strong man Elijah Hall continued his dominance in northern Alberta with a first place finish at the Fifth Oilsands Classic at the Casman Centre in Fort McMurray on Aug 3.
“This qualified me for Western Canada Strong Man next year, and from Western Canada if I get in the top three I can go to Nationals,” said Hall, who will be competing for the title of Alberta’s Strongest Man in Calgary on August 24.
The event in Fort McMurray saw Hall flip a Pontiac Sunfire not once, but twice to solidify his championship. Other events included dead lifts, a Conan wheel, and an arm-over-arm truck pull.
“This (truck) they were saying only weighed 18,000 pounds, but I’ve practiced that with pressure trucks and it feels like the same weight. Most could barely even pull the thing. Some people only pulled it like 10 feet. On an average person they were doing anywhere from 20 to 30 feet, and then I pulled it 54 feet,” he said. “I hammered the rest of the guys.”
The event saw two special guest referees, former four-time World’s Strongest Man champion Magnus ver Magnusson and two-time title holder of Europe’s Strongest Man, Manfred Hoeberl. Hall said that he made sure to soak up whatever knowledge he could from the former international competitors.
“When I was there I made sure to take advantage and ask any questions I had about what kind of pointers they could help me out with,” he said, adding that Hoeberl even offered to help critique his routine. “He was saying just take all my videos and send them to his email and he’ll correct me and tell me what to do in order to do better.”
While Hall is hot off his third Strong Man competition victory in northern Alberta this summer, he said there are still a number of areas with room for improvement.
“Even in this Fort McMurray one there were a few events where I was just a couple seconds off from where I could have done better,” he said. “The problem isn’t lifting it, it’s just a matter of how to control it better.”
Hall’s focus now lies on the provincial championship title, and he will be spending the coming weeks training for the events he will come up against in Calgary.
“I just looked up the events because they just changed them again, and I’ll have to practice more one-armed over the shoulder because they’ll be doing one-arm lifts, 140 pounds over your head with one arm,” Hall said.
“It looks like they’re going to be using sand bags and stuff, and I have two sand bags at home that weigh a couple hundred pounds each so I’ll practice loading those up into the back of the vehicle, then they’re saying that you have to push the truck and do a frame carry. Stuff like that I’m really good at because I’m really fast on my feet.”
Hall will compete for the title of Alberta’s Strongest Man in Calgary on Aug. 24.
