The 2016 World’s Strongest Man competition takes place in Botswana starting this weekend, and while there’s an impressive roster of athletes set to compete, there are also a few big names fans are sure to notice missing. For some, that’s because of prior commitments to another competition with overlapping dates: The Arnold Classic Asia. And while some competitors — like Dimitar Savatinov — announced they were forgoing WSM for the Arnold Asia months ago, it looks like a living legend of the sport will now be competing in Hong Kong: Zydrunas “Big Z” Savickas.
Savickas already has four WSM titles under his belt, and while many assumed he was out for the rest of the year with an injury, it looks like we’ll see Big Z compete this month — just not in Africa. Instead, he’s now set to appear at the Arnold Classic Asia Strongman, and according to the event’s website, he’ll even be going after his own record in the log lift:
Zydrunas “Big Z” Savickas (191cm, 180kg) will attempt to break his own record in the log lift at the Arnold Classic IFBB Pro Show on Saturday night. Big Z is 4x World’s Strongest Man, 8x Arnold Classic Strongman World Champion and multiple world record holder for the log lift as well as most recent world record at Arnold Classic Brazil lifting 228kg.
The Arnold Classic Asia Strongman takes place on August 20th, the last day of this year’s World’s Strongest Man. That means there will be two top strongman competitions featuring men’s superheavyweights/open category, taking place on different continents, on the same day.
The announced lineup for the Arnold Asia is below:
Zydrunas Savickas
Vytautas Lalas
Dimitar Savatinov
Mikhail Shivlyakov
Martin Wilder
Rauno Heinis
Nagy Akos
Featured image: Zydrunas Savickas’ Instagram (@savickas_bigz)
