Lucas Punkari
It had been a six-year quest with many ups and downs along the way.
But Sunday afternoon in Kitchener, local “strongman” Luke Skaarup was able to achieve a long-time goal—capturing the title of Ontario’s Strongest Man by six-and-a-half points over Thunder Bay’s Kyle Rayner.
He also qualified for next month’s Canada’s Strongest Man event.
“It really feels nice to finally win it,” Skaarup enthused.
“I’ve felt like I have been good enough the last four years to have a shot at winning it, and this time around things just worked out in my favour,” he noted.
“The field itself just keeps getting better, with six guys winning the eight events this year, and I think that probably helped me out actually.”
The event started Saturday with 22 competitors vying for the 12 spots available for Sunday, with a 930-pound tire flip, a 270-pound log press for reps, and a “farmer’s walk” (where competitors carry 300 pounds in each hand over a 200-foot course) among the first day’s events.
When the dust settled, Skaarup comfortably qualified for Sunday’s final five events—sitting in first place with a 1.5-point lead over Sudbury’s Maxime Boudreault.
“I had two thirds [in the tire flip and the farmer’s walk] and a fifth [in the log press], so I felt I did good overall,” Skaarup noted.
“I didn’t make any mistakes, put on a good performance, so I was happy with where I was at.
“My mindset going into the second day, though, was to treat it like a whole new event and forget about the first day,” he added.
After starting Sunday’s events with a fifth-place showing in the truck pull and a ninth-place result in the max log press, Skaarup rebounded with back-to-back wins in the car deadlift and yoke to increase his overall lead.
“Those are two events that I always preform well in,” he remarked.
“They made the car pretty heavy and there were four or five guys that couldn’t even lift it,” he noted. “But to me, I find that to be a good thing as, in my view, the heavier it [the car] is, the better.
“I was able to get 14 reps in that event, and the next closest guy had eight, so that really created a lot of point separation there.
“The last time that I used that yoke there in Kitchener, I did really well, and I was able to complete the course this time in 22 seconds,” Skaarup continued.
“And I felt I could of gone even faster,” he noted.
Going into the final event, which was the Atlas stones, Skaarup only needed to lift three onto their respective platforms to clinch the overall title, which he was able to do.
“I knew going in that’s what I had to do, and I was able to do that,” he reasoned.
“I made a poor tacking choice, I suppose, which is what you apply to your hands and your forearms to help you lift the stones,” Skaarup admitted.
“But some of the types that you chose can end up being like putting paint on your hand when it’s hot out, and that’s what happened to me there.
“I knew it as soon as I touched the first one that I was in trouble, but I was able to get the first three stones up there on the podium,” he added.
In addition to capturing the provincial title, Skaarup also was pleased to see Rayner earn a berth in the national showdown as the two have been friends for a long time.
“Kyle and I train together periodically and it’s great to see him do well,” he said.
“It’s awesome that two guys from Northwestern Ontario were able to do well this weekend, and we will be looking to represent the province well at Canada’s Strongest Man, along with Paul Vaillancourt from Renfrew.”
After competing at an event in Thunder Bay this Saturday, Skaarup then will prepare for the Canada’s Strongest Man event, which will take place Aug. 18-19 in Quebec City.
This marks the second time Skaarup will be competing against the top “strongmen” in the nation. He finished in eighth place three years ago.
“I think a lot of the things that I learned from last time was just to believe in yourself and give everything that you’ve got,” Skaarup said.
“I competed against most of the guys that have been there before, so it’s all kind of known qualities to me.
“The goal is to just do the best that you can in each event, be smart about the choices that you make in each event, and try to feed off of the energy from the crowd,” he reasoned.
