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Strongman

These Are the 2018 World’s Strongest Man Qualifying Events and Groups

Written by Nick English
Last updated on April 11th, 2018

We’re just two weeks away from the beginning of the most hotly anticipated event in strongman. The qualifying rounds of the 2018 World’s Strongest Man competition run from April 28th til May 1st before the two-day finals are held on May 5th and 6th in Manila, and our sources have passed BarBend a preview of the qualifying groups and events we can expect to see.

[Read more: the full list of athletes competing at the World’s Strongest Man.]

Everyone has the same Event 1 and Event 6: the events kick off with the Load and Carry on Saturday and end with Atlas Stones on Tuesday.

But there’s quite a bit of variety with regard to the other events and when the athletes compete: Group 1 and 4 have two events on Saturday and one on Sunday, while everyone else has one event on Saturday and two on Sunday. All athletes get one event on Monday so that they can come in full strength for two events on Tuesday.

Without further ado, these are the groups and events you can expect to see.

Group 1

Matjaz Belsak (SLO)
Hafthor Julius Bjornsson (ISL)
Rob Kearney (USA)
Marius Lalas (LTU)
Peiman Maheripourehir (IRI)
Laurence Shahlaei (GBR)

Saturday, April 28:

Event 1: Load and Carry
Event 2: Circle of Strength

Sunday, April 29

Event 3: Squat Lift

Monday, April 30

Event 4: Arm Over Arm

Tuesday, May 1

Event 5: Overhead Log
Event 6: Atlas Stones

Group 2

Adam Bishop (GBR)
Adam Derks (USA)
Johan Els (RSA)
Johnny Hansson (SWE)
Vytautas Lalas (LTU)
Brian Shaw (USA)

Saturday, April 28

Event 1: Load and Carry

Sunday, April 29

Event 2: Kettlebell Toss
Event 3: Deadlift

Monday, April 30

Event 4: Arm Over Arm

Tuesday, May 1

Event 5: Dumbbell Medley
Event 6: Atlas Stones

Group 3

Graham Hicks (GBR)
Iron Biby (BUR)
Dennis Kohlruss (GER)
Robert Oberst (USA)
Zydrunas Savickas (LTU)
Luke Stoltman (GBR)

Saturday, April 28

Event 1: Load and Carry

Sunday, April 29

Event 2: Kettlebell Toss
Event 3: Squat Lift

Monday, April 30

Event 4: Bus Pull

Tuesday, May 1

Event 5: Overhead Log
Event 6: Atlas Stones

View this post on Instagram

This was the exact moment I had realized I had just won my pro card as a #strongman… it is one of my favorite pictures taken of me, and from that moment, my career took off. — The Odd Haugen Strength Classic was a brutal #contest. I was only 275lbs soaking wet. My static strength wasn’t even close to par with the other pros and amateurs that were competing. However, boyyy, could I move weights. Leading up to the contest, I knew my strength wasn’t great, but what I did have, was relentless focus, technique, mobility, and a mental berserk switch that would push my power to beyond anything I previously could perform in training. During most of the show, I was either mid pack, or lower top pack. Every event I did, I went in to it with an intent to win, and more often than not, I did not take the event. Yet, my #belief going into each following event, did not waver. I was forward focused. It was when we were given 505lb front #squats for reps, that my training paid off. No doubt the other competitors had #stronger squats than I did. Yet, their #mobility did not allow them to hold that weight (with giant awkward wheels) comfortably! I won the event with 3 repetitions where in training I could only perform one. Thereafter, it was #stones… an event that I practice obsessively. I was the only competitor to finish loading the 4th stone, which finally won me the entire contest, and hence this photo. — Moving forward, much of the strongman community didn’t accept my sudden rise to #pro status, telling me that I was setup because the promoter of this contest (@oddhaugen ) was also my coach and good friend. Regardless, just as with the events of the contest, I focused forward, to my next contest; Giants Live, in Iceland, against some of the Worlds Strongest including @thorbjornsson and @markfelix66 . As I was warming up to start the show, as with the previous show, I was given funny looks and told I don’t belong there, and that it was a fluke that I had made it so far. With my static strength slowly coming up, but still not quite there, I ended up winning the truck pull, and stones, which got me my invite to @theworldsstrongestman . And then I got much much stronger.

A post shared by Martins Licis (@martinslicis) on

Group 4

JF Caron (CAN)
Mark Felix (GBR)
Martin Forsmark (SWE)
Rongo Keene (AUS)
Martins Licis (USA)
Krzysztof Radzikowski (POL)

Saturday, April 28

Event 1: Load and Carry
Event 2: Circle of Strength

Sunday, April 29

Event 3: Deadlift

Monday, April 30

Event 4: Arm Over Arm

Tuesday, May 1

Event 5: Dumbbell Medley
Event 6: Atlas Stones

Group 5

Nick Best (USA)
Terry Hollands (GBR)
Konstantine Janashia (GEO)
Mateusz Kieliszkowski (POL)
Mikhail Shivlyakov (RUS)
Aivars Smaukstelis (LAT)

Saturday, April 28

Event 1: Load and Carry

Sunday, April 29

Event 2: Kettlebell Toss
Event 3: Deadlift

Monday, April 30

Event 4: Bus Pull

Tuesday, May 1

Event 5: Dumbbell Medley
Event 6: Atlas Stones

View this post on Instagram

#focus

A post shared by Iron Biby (@ironbiby) on

Note that Adam Bishop is still listed as a competitor despite having partially torn his bicep before Europe’s Strongest Man. While one might assume he’d be dropping out of WSM, he posted on his Instagram that “luckily the tendon is intact, however I need to rest it in order to compete at WSM in 3 weeks time.”

This year’s competition is stacked. Best of luck to all the athletes.

Featured image via @thorbjornsson on Instagram.