by Stephen Dafoe
After placing third in Canada in an online Strongman competition earlier this year, Morinville resident Masters Strongman competitor Scott Wallace decided to compete in Arizona’s Strongest Man, held in Phoenix on Aug. 28 and 29.
Wallace, who has previously been named Washington State’s strongest man, BC and Alberta’s Strongest Man and won a national competition in his class, started a rigorous 16-week training schedule earlier this spring to ready for the upcoming competition.
The Masters-level professional strongman’s rigorous training has involved lifting stones in excess of 300 pounds, sandbags in excess of 200 pounds, and the back end of automobiles.
“I feel good after 16 weeks of hard prep,” Wallace said the weekend before the competition. “I haven’t trained this hard or this strict for competition since 2016. My central nervous system is definitely worn down and I need a break next week so come to the competition I’ll be hitting on all cylinders.”
Wallace said his past injuries feel near 100 per cent healthy, which he sees as an asset heading to Arizona.
As to the competition, he is feeling most confident about the sandbag toss, which involves hurling 25, 35 and 40-pound sandbags 15 feet or more over a pole from varying distances.
Similarly, the athlete feels good about Atlas Stones, an event that involves rapidly lifting five solid concrete balls over an elevated pole. The balls start at 225 pounds and end at 350 pounds.
Wallace who sees himself as an excellent dead lifter feels positive about the car deadlift which involved the strongmen and women lifting the back end of a vehicle as many times as they can.
While at the two-day competition, Wallace will do two medley events. The first involves rapidly lifting a 120-pound circus dumbbell, a 220 axle weight set up and a 220-pound log.
The other medley, which is the first event of the competition, will see Wallace lift and run with a metal tombstone, and two sandbags, both over 200 pounds for fifty metres, dropping them into a metal wheelbarrow device and then returning all three back to the finish line. The target for the entire run is 90 seconds.
“I feel like I’ve put in the work and it’s time to rest and come game day, the rewards of the hard work will pay off,” Wallace said, adding he still feels confident to finish in the top three and that a first-place finish is not out of reach. “There is a great field of competition there from last year’s winner and a couple of Official Strongman Games world competitors. But I believe I am right there with them.
“I have zero doubts that I will not perform at a high level. I will not be beaten by mistakes. For someone to beat they must be better than me.”
Wallace will follow Arizona by competing against Canada’s 12 strongest men over the age of 40 in Regina Sept. 26.
You can follow Wallace’s journey on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ScottWallaceStrongmanCompetitor. The event will be livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/alphaomegastrongman.
