McNamee boosts confidence ahead of taking on the World

GAVIN McNamee produced a performance to remember at Ireland’s Strongest Man in Limerick on Sunday when, despite battling a hamstring injury and being the smallest competitor in action, he finished a remarkable sixth overall.

The Strabane man impressed throughout the gruelling event, which took place in temperatures reaching almost 30 degrees during the Sprint and Drag with a massive anchor and chain, which he almost completed; the 400kg tyre flip; the block press, which only two men managed three of; the deadlift, which he managed 340kgs and the famous Atlas Stones, which only one competitor managed all five – Gavin completed four.

“I didn’t do too bad!,” he beamed. “I was the smallest competitor there, obviously I won the under-95kg category to qualify for the finals. I feel that if I had a proper preparation for it, came in 100 per cent, I probably wouldn’t have been far off top three, which is a great confidence boost.”

The Strabane strongman, who is the current world record holder for the under-90kg deadlift, which he increased to 377.5kgs in Liverpool last month, almost pulled out of the biggest event in Ireland because of the injury he sustained after that effort in England.

“It was just after Liverpool, about a week or two after that, I was at training and one day I was doing deadlifts and it just didn’t feel right,” he explained.

“It didn’t feel too bad at the start so I just kept trying but the more I tried to train I knew something was wrong. I figured out what it was and I took it easy then, rested up and got some work done on it then.

“Initially I was going to pull the plug for the rest of my competitions this year due to injuring my hamstring and my training going downhill!

“But my coach and the boys I train with, who were competing as well, they told me to rest up and just wing it! And that’s exactly what I did and it worked out grand in the end!”

Gavin will now turn his attentions to a busy autumn at winter with competitions in Paris, Florida and England.

He has been selected to compete in the World’s Ultimate Strongman Championship U90kg in October in France, the 2022 Official Strongman Games at Daytona Beach in November when he will attempt to win World’s Strongest Man under-90kg, and the event in England in December and to help him finance those trips he has started a gofundme campaign in order to raise the vast funds necessary.

“It’s going to be a costly handling!,” he admitted. “I’m going to try to get sponsors sorted out as well.”

Ireland’s Strongest Man will be screened on RTE around November time but in the meantime, visit gofundme.com and search for Gavin McNamee in order to support his fundraising drive.