Lucas Punkari
Going up against arguably the toughest field of competitors in any event so far in 2012 was just extra motivation for Regina’s Scott Cummine.
The 10th-year strongman, who stands at 6’0” and tips the scales at 290 pounds, was the class of the 16-man field at the ’52 Canadians Arena here Saturday afternoon as he captured the second-annual Fort Frances “Strongman” title over defending champ and local competitor Luke Skaarup.
“It was a really hard competition,” Cummine noted.
“When you have an event like this where the repetitions are really high, it’s a lot more of a mentally tough day than it is physically, to be honest,” he added.
“All that you can really do out there is just stay focused on what you are doing and complete the day.”
Cummine finished in first place in four of the six events en route to earning 87 points out of possible 96 for the day, with Skaarup finishing just 1.5 points behind.
“I’ve compete against Scott four times and I’ve only beaten him once now,” Skaarup said.
“He’s finished third in all of Canada the last two years, so to finish so close behind Scott is something that I have no shame in,” he added.
“In fact, it’s actually something that I’m really honoured to accomplish.”
Cummine’s dominance began in the truck pull event, as he was the only competitor to pull a 41,000-pound dump truck over the 70-foot course in a time of 53.22 seconds.
He followed that up with a second-place finish in the press medley (where competitors had to lift a 315-pound and a 275-pound “log,” a 295-pound axel, a 160-pound circus dumbbell, and a 250-pound yoke), where he was narrowly edged out by Thunder Bay’s Kyle Rayner.
Cummine then took first spot once again in the car deadlift as he was able to lift a Ford Focus 25 times in a one-minute span.
“That was the event I was most pleased by,” he recalled.
“The car deadlift was something that took a lot of mental toughness and focus to do, especially as I needed to do that many reps in order to take the lead from Luke and [third-place finisher] Jacob [Bodi].”
The one slip up for Cummine during the day came in the crucifix hold, finishing in eighth place after only holding out two 45-pound weights in his hand for 37.02 seconds.
Thunder Bay’s Dallas Hogan held on to the weights for 52.53 seconds to win the event while Skaarup finished in second to close in on Cummine in the overall standings.
“To finish that high in that event was a real shock to me,” Skaarup admitted.
“That is an event I’m usually not very good in, so I figured I would be finishing up in the middle of the pack once it was all said and done.”
But Cummine soon returned to his winning ways, though, completing a medley event that involved flipping a 950-pound tire three times, carrying a 270-pound keg, and then doing a 335-pound “farmer’s walk” over 50 feet in just 37.54 seconds.
In the final event of the day, which involved lifting a 350-pound stone over a 56-inch high bar, the top three finishers proved why they were the best for the entire event as Cummine, Skaarup, and Bodi each completed the task eight times in 60 seconds.
“It’s kind of a funny thing that you see sometimes in these events,” Skaarup said, referring to the three-way tie in the Atlas stone event.
“When you’re training by yourself, you may just do five repetitions as you don’t really want to push yourself all that much.
“But as soon as I saw Jake [Bodi] do eight reps, I knew that I had to do that in order to save my placing, and I’m sure Scott felt the same way when he did his,” Skaarup added.
Rayner and Joel Dircks of Mankato, Mn. rounded out the top five competitors.
Next up for Skaarup is an event in Toronto on May 26-27, which will be held in conjunction with the Toronto Pro Super Show fitness expo.
