Guernsey’s strongest to flex muscles at weekend

It is the first time in five years since a full five-event competition has been held in the island.

Gail Girard from Guernsey’s Strongest Club said there had been a wonderful response to the competition, with 11 women and 27 men having all signed up to compete, and they actually had to close the competition to more entrants.

‘We last did one in 2017, and it was very popular, with about 150 spectators at the KGV and 22 entrants,’ she said.

‘But this time we have nearly 40 entrants. We had taken a bit of a break and we decided to come back for a small event this year. We expected maybe 18 entrants. So this is amazing.’

The event will be hosted at the Last Post.

It will kick off with a max tyre deadlift.

This will be followed by truck pull. There will be a 25-metre run and entrants will have 90 seconds to pull the vehicle as far as they can. Some will make it to the end, so then how fast they did it will be taken into account. The male competitors will be pulling a scaffolding lorry, which will weigh about six-and-a-half tons. The female competitors will have an electric van, which will be weighted to be about three-and-a-half tons.

There will then be two timed medleys – an overhead medley and a carry medley.

The day will finish with a weighted keg run and loading.

‘It’s going to be a very busy day,’ Mrs Girard said.

With it being the first event in a while, Mrs Girard said they had geared the event more towards beginners and they had seen some novices sign up.

‘We want to encourage people to have a go, and then they can look to go off-island and represent the island.’

The event has already been helping the local strong community to come together.

‘What’s been really nice is that before the competition they train at the gym, but they don’t really talk,’ she said.

‘But now they are all talking.’

Mrs Girard said she was very grateful to everyone who was helping to put the event on, including the pub, and also thanked event sponsors Valour Fitness, Granite Fit, Elevations Scaffolding, Hiscox Insurance and Little Big Brewing Co.

The public are welcome to come down and watch for free during the day, and there will be parking available on land nearby, which will be signposted.

Refreshments will be available to buy from the Last Post.

The event will be running between 9.30am and 4.30pm on Saturday.