An Elephant Bar deadlift world record heard around the world.
Few events this year have had as much hype built around them as the Elephant Bar Deadlift at the 2019 Arnold Strongman Classic. This year, the Elephant Bar Deadlift served as the first event at the Arnold Strongman Classic, a Rogue Record Breakers Event, and an event that had a grand prize of $50,000 awarded to any athlete to pull over 500kg.
Last year, Icelandic strongman Hafthor Bjornsson made a ton of noise in the strength community when he broke the Elephant Bar Deadlift World Record with his incredibly strong 472kg/1,042 lb deadlift. Since then, there has been a ton of discussion about the 2019 Elephant Bar Deadlift event this year.
History in the making…
In a packed EXPO Center, thousands gathered around the Rogue EXPO Center Stage to watch the strongest men in the world take a run at the Elephant Bar Deadlift World Record and potentially the $50,000 USD prize.
On his second deadlift attempt, Hafthor Bjornsson earned a $5,000 USD prize for breaking the current Elephant Bar World Record with a strong and easy 474kg/1,046 lb world record.
Heading into the third attempts it was Brian Shaw versus Bjronsson for the top two spots. Shaw called for 476kg/1,051 lbs on the bar to edge out Bjornsson, but missed the lift from the floor. Bjornsson, with every fan’s eyes on him, called for the legendary 501kg/1,105 lbs on the bar. The crowd went wild as Bjornsson lifted the weight to the mid-thigh, but failed to lock it out, falling just shy of the $50,000 USD prize.
Outside of Bjornsson and Shaw’s epic battle, elephant bar deadlift event favorite JF Caron had to withdraw from the competition due to tweaking his hamstring on his first attempt. Additionally, after opening up with the heaviest pull, Jerry Pritchett also had to withdraw from the event on his second attempt due to a potential injury.
Needless to say, the Rogue Elephant Bar Deadlift event definitely lived up its hype and it was the perfect way to kick off the 2019 Arnold Strongman Classic.
Featured image via @roguefitness on Instagram.
