McNamee qualifies for main event ahead of record attempt

GAVIN McNamee booked his place at Ireland’s Strongest Man on Saturday after finishing seventh overall and first in the under-95kg weight class in Kilkenny.

The 27-year-old is the current 90kg deadlift world record holder, a mark he hopes to increase dramatically next month, and while delighted to have qualified for the August 14th showpiece in Limerick, he admits it was far from easy to do so.

The event started with the 400kg tyre flip, which Gavin described as a ‘disaster’ followed by the 7.5 tonne truck pull, 78kg dumbell, car deadlift hold and the 150kg stone. The Strabane man won four of the events in his class to win that section of the tournament.

“My main goal was to win my category and see what happens after that, but I’m delighted to have qualified,” he beamed.

“Any other competitions I have done have been with basic equipment that you can find in strong man gyms, but this sort of event is with equipment you can’t really train with.

“I was training with a tyre for this competition and I was flying with it but yesterday [Saturday] it was a big game changer because the tyre was a lot heavier and smaller. There was nowhere really to grip the tyre so it was difficult to get it off thr ground and because it was so heavy three lads tore their biceps. It was the first event and that’s them out for months I’d imagine.’

“It was survival of the fittest.”

Having achieved his aim of winning his weight class and qualifying for Ireland’s Strongest Man, Gavin is now focusing on breaking his deadlift world record of 376kgs when he attempts 400kgs in Liverpool on July 2nd.

“It will be five kilos under four and a half times my bodyweight!,” he exclaimed.

“In training at the minute I’m doing 370 for reps and it’s pretty easy so 400 should be a reasonable increase on the day.

“When you hear about people going to break records, they go and try to break them by one kilo or half a kg so this time I’m going for 24 kilos, which is a big jump.”