Aivars Šmaukstelis wins the first round of the Betsafe Strongman Championship in Saldus

In its first round, on 26 May, nine athletes began their fight for the title of 2018 champion, including last year’s strongest man in Latvia, Artis Plivda, and Aivars Šmaukstelis, who made his World’s Strongest Man 2018 debut. Seven other strongmen also attempted to challenge them: Igors Podčeredņičenko, Raivis Mundiciems, Didzis Zariņš, Jānis Šleckus and Oskars Martužans. The event was also attended by Lithuanian athlete Audrius Jokubaitis and our young hopeful Ričards Bužinskis, for whom this was his first competition among the strongman elite.

The athletes competed in six disciplines.

The first event—“Latvijas Nafta” tanker truck pull—saw the 14-tonne tanker pulled over a distance of 30 m. It showed that these competitions would not be an easy walk in the park for our best athletes, as others had also done hard work over the winter and prepared well for this anniversary season. Special praise goes to Kuldīga native Jānis Šleckus and Mārciena native Didzis Zariņš, who took first and second place in this event, completing the distance in 18.09 and 18.69 seconds, respectively. Only one-tenth of a second behind them was Oskars Martužans of Uga, taking third place and leaving the main favourites, Šmaukstelis and Plivda, outside the top three.

The second event—“Husqvarna rider lift”—awakened Aivars Šmaukstelis, who was convincingly the best, lifting the rider 22 times and thereby setting the first record of the season, which the athletes will now try to beat throughout the summer. The closest challengers, Jānis Šleckus (18 repetitions) and Didzis Zariņš (17 repetitions), tactically outperformed Artis (16 repetitions), preventing him from entering the top three. Raivis Mundiciems also deserves praise for his result—the rider was lifted 15 times.

The third event—“Essve / Darba Drošības Centrs relay”. Over a 4 × 20 m distance, carrying shoulder yokes, barrels and farmer’s walk implements, Šmaukstelis was once again unbeatable; Šleckus took second place and Martužans third.

The fourth event—“Ferratum Money safe lift”. The previous year’s champion, Artis Plivda, achieved his first victory in one of the events, lifting the 340 kg safe 12 times. With 11 repetitions, Aivars Šmaukstelis took second place, while Jānis Šleckus was third with 9.

The fifth event—“RERE Group shield carry”. The best result, 15.03 seconds, was recorded by Aivars Šmaukstelis. Martužans and Šleckus, both representatives of Rozental team, shared second place with an identical time of 16.34 seconds.

Before the sixth and final event—“Betsafe Atlanta stone lifting”—Aivars Šmaukstelis had built up only a 1.5-point lead over Jānis Šleckus, who had demonstrated very consistent performance at this stage of the competition. At the same time, three athletes were fighting for third place overall—Didzis Zariņš, Oskars Martužans and Artis Plivda—who were separated by just 0.5 points. This promised a serious battle right up to the end of the competition. Oskars was the first to drop out of the fight for third place, choosing the wrong adhesive in the hot weather and failing to lift all the stones. In a fierce contest, Artis Plivda managed to beat Didzis Zariņš both in this event and in the overall standings. Although they finished with the same number of points, Artis secured the higher position thanks to his victory in the Ferratum Money safe lift. Jānis was also unable to defeat Aivars in the fight for first place. Aivars claimed his fourth event victory and increased his lead to 5.5 points.

As the event’s chief organiser, Agris Kazeļņiks, said after the competition: “I am pleased with the athletes’ fighting spirit and with what they achieved during the off-season. This shows that this 15th anniversary season will be intense and interesting, as other athletes will join the competition from the next event; injuries prevented them from participating today.”

Overall standings:

1.       Aivars ŠMAUKSTELIS – 50 points

2.       Jānis Šleckus – 45.5 points

3.       Artis Plivda – 38 points

4.       Didzis Zariņš – 38 points

5.       Oskars martužans – 35.5 points

6.       Raivis Mundiciems – 23 points

7.       Audrius jokubaitis – 16 points

8.       Igors Podčeredņičenko – 11 points

9.       Ričards Bužinskis – 6 points

The next competition will take place on 30 June in Talsi.

This year, the “Betsafe Latvia Strongman Championship” consists of seven rounds, which will take place throughout the summer in various locations across Latvia—Saldus, Talsi, Ventspils, Preiļi, Viesīte, Līvāni, Krāslava and Pļaviņas. The grand superfinal, which will determine the winner of the 2018 “Betsafe Latvia Strongman Championship”, will take place in Riga on 1 September.

The “Betsafe Latvia Strongman Championship” is organised by the associations “Spēka Sporta Centrs” and “Stiprinieku Republika”, and the Stipriem sports club.

The general sponsor of the “Betsafe Latvia Strongman Championship” is “Betsafe”. Supported by “Husqvarna”, “Latvijas Nafta”, “FerratumMoney”, “Essve” and “Darba drošības centrs”. Coverage by radio “Star FM” and TVnet. Watch highlights on RīgaTV24.

Round supporter—Saldus Municipality Council

Seasonal general sponsor—“RERE Group”.

Source of strength—MLO nutrition from NRG4Strong.com

More information—stiprinieki.lv

Information prepared by

Vineta Kazeļņika, Spēka Sporta Centrs