by Stephen Dafoe
Morinville resident and professional strongman competitor Scott Wallace competed in Arizona’s Strongest Man and Woman, which took place Aug. 28 and 29 at Alpha and Omega Alpha Omega Strength Strongman in Phoenix, Arizona.
Wallace, who has been on an aggressive training program for the past 16 weeks took fifth place in the Masters’ class (men over 40).
Although hoping to place in the top three, Wallace said he was pleased with the result, given the strong roster of seven competitors.
“You know what? I’m actually happy with my weekend. I had a blast against U.S. competitors,” Wallace said, noting it was a great time with great people. “I placed fifth in a strong field of seven Masters, so it was good to compete against tough competition.”
That competition included three Official Strongman Games regulars, including last year’s winner.
“It was a close battle,” Wallace said, noting the top five were separated by only eight points.
Wallace said an initial poor showing in the medley event, an event he has struggled with during training, cost him out of the gate. In that event, Wallace had to lift and run with a metal tombstone [Husafell stone], 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 was 90 seconds.
“I totally screwed up the medley right out of the gate by miss loading the Husafell Stone,” Wallace said.
The initial event was followed by another medley with a circus dumbbell, axel press and a log press. In that event, Wallace excelled at the first two but struggled with the log due to previous shoulder injuries.
The third and final Saturday event was deadlifting the back end of a sport utility vehicle. In that event, Wallaces’s 12 reps gave him third place out of seven Masters’ competitors.
Sunday’s competition had two events, the sandbag toss and atlas stones.
Prior to the competition, Wallace said he felt most confident in the sandbag toss, which involved hurling 25, 35 and 40-pound sandbags 15 feet or more over a pole from varying distances. Wallace took first place in that event.
The Morinville strongman had similar confidence in Atlas stones, an event that involved rapidly lifting five solid concrete balls over an elevated pole. The balls start at 225 pounds and end at 350 pounds. Wallace said he either took second or third in that event.
“Overall, I’m very happy, I could’ve stayed in Canada done lighter CAASA [Canadian Alliance of Amateur Strength Athletes] events and won, but it’s not worth it,” Wallace said. “Better to compete against better guys. I feel really good about CSM [Canada’s Strongest Man] Masters after this weekend.”
Wallace is one of 12 Masters competitors invited to compete in Canada’s Strongest Man, held in Regina, Saskatchewan on Sept. 26.
