The 2021 Giants Live World Tour Finals took place on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021, at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. It was a smorgasbord of points for Luke Stoltman and 2021 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) champion Tom Stoltman, who paced the field to win the gold and silver, respectively. The single-day competition featured five events that tested grip, endurance, technique, power, and of course, strength.
Aside from the trophy ceremony that saw two Scotsmen stand tallest, two world records fell at the contest. 2019 World Log Lift Champion Chieck “Iron Biby” Sanou overhead pressed a log weighing 229 kilograms (504.8 pounds) to break four-time WSM champion Žydrūnas Savickas‘ record by a kilogram. Kevin Faires farmers walked the Nicol Stones 22.2 meters to enter the record books en route to a fourth-place overall finish.
2021 Giants Live World Tour Finals Results
- Luke Stoltman, UK — 37.5 points
- Tom Stoltman, UK — 36.5 points
- Evan Singleton, USA — 33.5 points
- Kevin Faires, USA — 31.5 points
- Adam Bishop, UK — 30 points
- Andy Black, UK — 28 points
- Maxime Boudreault, Canada — 27 points
- Gabriel Peña, Mexico — 21.5 points
- Mark Felix, UK — 18 points
- Gavin Bilton, UK — 5.5 points*
*Bilton withdrew from the competition following the second event (log lift).
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Luke Stoltman is on a winning streak. This is his second major event win in September 2021 — he stood atop the podium at the 2021 Europe’s Strongest Man (ESM) contest two weeks before this event. The World Tour Finals also featured the strong return of his younger brother, Tom Stoltman, to competition. Tom withdrew from the 2021 ESM competition due to testing positive for COVID-19, but was in impressive form, missing the top spot by a single point.
2021 Giants Live World Tour Finals — Event Results
The first event of the day — the Nicol Stones — set the tone for the rest of the competition. Faires shot out of the gates until he found his rhythm, settled in, and walked the stones across the line for a new world record of 22.2 meters. The previous record, set by Luke Stoltman, was 19.5 meters. Andy Black, who is also notoriously strong in the event, finished less than half a meter behind Faires.
Nicol Stones
- Kevin Faires — 22.2 meters — World Record
- Andy Black — 21.86 meters
- Evan Singleton — 21.44 meters
Luke Stoltman and Tom Stoltman ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, in this event. They both broke through the 17-meter mark but were unable to pass 18 meters.
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Log Lift
The second event of the competition was the log lift for reps with a 150-kilogram (330.7-pound) log. The British log lift record holder Luke Stoltman proved his prowess again in overhead events by scoring nine reps for first place. Tom matched his older brother’s nine reps to tie for first in the event.
- Luke Stoltman — Nine reps (T-first)
- Tom Stoltman — Nine reps (T-first)
- Maxime Boudreault — Eight reps
Bilton withdrew from the competition after scoring five reps to land in seventh place in the event. He finished with 5.5 points overall.
Axle Deadlift
Bishop usually steps up his game in the deadlift and this contest was no exception. He won the KNAACK Deadlift event at the 2021 WSM contest by locking out 345 kilograms (760 pounds) 10 times, and repeated that rank by scoring seven reps with 360 kilograms (793 pounds) in Glasgow. Peña, who is also a prolific deadlifter, matched Bishop to share in first-place points.
- Adam Bishop — Seven reps (T-first)
- Gabriel Peña — Seven reps (T-first)
- Tom Stoltman — Six reps
Singleton continued his streak of finishes in the top half of the field by scoring five reps. Luke Stoltman, Felix, and Black all tapped out after three reps. Faires stepped down after two reps.
Car Walk
Singleton finally captured his first event win of the contest with a 12.26-second run inside the car frame. His speed on the yoke walk was quick enough to beat out Tom Stoltman by less than a second. The top six times were all within seven seconds of each other.
- Evan Singleton — 12.26 seconds
- Tom Stoltman — 13.22 seconds
- Luke Stoltman — 16.35 seconds
Black and Peña were the only two athletes unable to finish the course. They traversed 4.6 meters and 3.15 meters, respectively.
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Atlas Stones
The big news is that Tom Stoltman did not place first in the Atlas Stone event for the first time in two years. Instead, “The King of Stones” was dethroned by 2021 WSM bronze medalist Maxime Boudreault, who loaded all five stones in 19.55 seconds. Black finished behind him by just seven-tenths of a second. Luke Stoltman took third in the event to secure his overall victory.
- Maxime Boudreault — Five stones, 19.55 seconds
- Andy Black — Five stones, 19.62 seconds
- Luke Stoltman — Five stones, 19.91 seconds
Tom Stoltman ranked seventh in the event, placing all five stones in 27.03 seconds. The Atlas Stones were Singleton’s weakest event; he loaded five stones in a ninth-place time of 32.71 seconds.
Forward to 2022
The top three podium finishers at Giants Live World Tour events receive invites to the 2022 WSM contest. Luke Stoltman is on arguably the most robust streak of his career at the moment, Tom Stoltman seems to have bounced back well from his battle with COVID-19, and Singleton has claimed that winning the WSM contest is not a matter of if but when.
The 2021 World’s Ultimate Strongman contest took place in Dubai on the same day as the 2021 Giants Live World Finals. 2020 WSM champion Oleksii Novikov narrowly claimed the top spot over two-time WSM runner-up Mateusz Kieliszkowski, who returned from a two-year hiatus to recover from triceps surgery.
The roster of elite strongmen currently competing at the highest level is very deep. If Tom Stoltman will end the five-year pattern of different WSM champions and go back-to-back, he will do so against one of the most challenging fields possible.
Feature image: @giantslivewsm on Instagram | photo via Zoie Carter-Ingham