Lucas Punkari
Local strongman Luke Skaarup found himself as a bit of an outsider on Saturday as he and 14 other strongmen competed for the top spot at the Battle at the Beach II event in Milwaukee, Wisc., as he was the only one representing the “Great White North.”
“Everyone else had come in from all over the United Staes, and I was the only one there who had come from Canada,” he said.
“The venue itself was at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee, and it was a beautiful venue with thousands of people along a long sandy beach close to the downtown.
“It was a fun competition to compete in, and it was great to compete and go up against a lot of guys that I hadn’t gone up against before,” he added.
Going into the competition, Skaarup was hoping to make the top three, and did just that as he finished tied with Jacob Bodi for the final spot on the podium, just four points back of winner Brad Audrey.
“This was a tough competition with a lot of the top strongmen in the United States, and I am happy with how I did,” he added.
“I came pretty close to winning the whole show, but that’s how it goes at this level, as you have to go hard in every single event, and one little bobble could cost you,” Skaarup stressed.
Skaarup started off the event with a bang with a pair of first place finishes, as he completed the power stairs (where competitors lifted a 425 lbs block for 12 stairs and a 500 lbs block for four stairs) in 29 seconds, and complete the block press (where athletes had to list five different weight blocks in the sand) in 42 seconds.
“I had really good technique in the power stairs and I was able to lift the weights in a consistent fashion and ended up beating the nearest guy by about ten seconds,” he recalled.
“The block press in the sand was the event I was most worried about going into the competition, as it was something that I had never done before, but I was able to do really well on it by lifting the four blocks in that time,” Skaarup added.
From that point on though, Skaarup slid down the standings, as he had a trio of sixth place finishes in the stone carry, keg toss, and atlas stones events, which dropped him to third in the standings.
“The stone carry was very tough to do in the sand, as it pretty much cuts your normal distance in half and it tires your legs out right away,” he noted.
“I made the first lap quickly and could feel my legs starting to go, but I kept fighting it until I couldn’t walk anymore and I finished with a distance of 185 feet, which was an okay result for me.
“I was looking for a clean run on the keg toss, but I had to retrieve the second keg and toss it over the bar again as it hit the bar on the way down and bounced back in.
“Any bobble in that event is costly, as that cost me at least six or seven seconds, and that ended up putting me in second place in the standings,” Skaarup added.
Having a four point lead over third place, and only being a single point back of the leader, Skaarup was looking to lift the first six stones as fast as possible, before lifting the final 405 pound stone.
“The group of stone lifters at this event was really good and better than I’m used to seeing, so that pushed all of us to do better,” he stressed.
“I started fast and did the first five stones rather easily, but on the sixth stone I was able to get it to ledge and lost it while trying to push it over the edge of the platform.
“I tried twice more, but I didn’t have any more gas left,” he added.
After his performance in Milwaukee, Skaarup will continue to prepare for the Ontario’s Strongest Man competition in Kitchener on July 21-22, with a spot at this year’s Canada’s Strongest Man on the line.
