The fifth and final event for the 2023 Rogue Strongman Invitational came down to “The Duel” — a sandbag medley that favored those who thrive in loading races. Due to inclement weather, the initial schedule of six events was chopped to five, which favored the 2023 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) champion Mitchell Hooper, who entered the final event with a three-point lead over two-time WSM champion Tom Stoltman.
It was clearly going to be Hooper and Stoltman at the top of the podium, but Hooper only needed to finish within two ranks of Stoltman to claim the 2023 Rogue Strongman Invitational title. Below are the results of the final event:
2023 Rogue Invitational Strongman Event Five Results — “The Duel”
For time:
- Load three sandbags — 325, 350, and 375 pounds
Here are the results.
- Tom Stoltman — 0:17.57
- Mitchell Hooper — 0:17.84
- Maxime Boudreault — 0:18.83
- Mateusz Kieliszkowski — 0:19.63
- Evan Singleton — 0:20.55
- Bobby Thompson — 0:20.81
- Thomas Evans — 0:20.94
- Luke Stoltman — 0:22.35
- Oleksii Novikov — 0:23.38
- Trey Mitchell — withdrew
[Related: 2023 Rogue Invitational Live Results and Leaderboard]
[Related: 2023 Rogue Invitational Strongman Event 4 Results — “Max Log Lift”]
2023 Rogue Invitational Strongman Event Five Recap — “The Duel”
Boudreault, Novikov, Luke Stoltman, and Evans ran in the first heat. Novikov was the defending champion who was out of contention for defending the throne. Boudreault snuck the final sandbag into the teeter to score the heat win.
Tom Stoltman, Hooper, Thompson, Kieliszkowski, and Singleton ran the second heat. It was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pace, and Hooper bested Tom Stoltman to lock himself an overall contest win. “If you took split times between first and second bags, it could cost you two or three ranks,” said Hooper in his post-heat interview. He knew that a lot of chalk to offset the humidity was the key to scoring a flawless run with all three sandbags.
Laurence Shahlaei, on commentary, wrapped up Hooper’s 2023 Rogue Invitational performance succinctly:
[Hooper’s] strength is that he has no weakness.
Mitchell Hooper is the 2023 Rogue Strongman Invitational champion. Tom Stoltman finished as the runner-up for the second straight year.
2023 Rogue Strongman Invitational Events
- 2023 Rogue Invitational Strongman Event 3 Results — “Rogue-a-Coaster”
- 2023 Rogue Invitational Strongman Event 2 “Iron Bull” Results
- 2023 Rogue Invitational Strongman Event 1 “Tower of Power” Results
Featured image: @mitchellhooper on Instagram
