McNamee seals place on world podium

AHEAD of his trip to Florida for the Official Strongman Games, Strabane’s Gavin McNamee had hoped to make it through to the under-90kg final, but at the weekend he surpassed that goal to take third place in the world class event.

Not only did he claim third place but he very nearly won gold, having excelled during the first five events
to lead the competition by half a point.

And in the end, it was the final Atlas Stone in the seventh and final event that proved the difference between McNamee finishing first and third overall, not that he minds after being left in limbo for a time at the end of that test..

“It was actually after I did the Atlas Stones some people were telling me I won, some people were telling me unlucky so I didn’t have a clue where I was placed until one of the promoters came over to me and told me I had came third,” explained the 27-year-old who is now focused on breaking his own deadlift world record..

“I was so close to getting the last stone as well which would have given me the overall win but I wasn’t even bothered as I didn’t even think I was going to make top 10!

“To be third in the world at the biggest competition there is, well words just can’t really describe it. The way I am is I’ll be buzzing for a few days then get my head back in the game to stay motivated or it’ll put my head in a bad place, so I always need to be entered in a competition to keep me motivated.

“So I have Record Breakers in Belfast now on December 4th where I’ll be attempting the U90kg Deadlift World Record again so as soon as I get home at the weekend it’s straight back into the gym putting in the work!”

McNamee’s trip to Florida provided the Strabane strongman with a tougher schedule than he had initially expected.

The plan was to compete over two days, Friday and Saturday in order to qualify for Sunday’s final but with a hurricane warning in place the day after they arrived in Florida they did the weigh-in on Thursday, an athletes meeting on the Friday and then attempted all the events scheduled for the Friday and Saturday on the one day.

That meant, McNamee and his fellow competitors had to do the Viking Press, Farmers Walk, Axle Deadlift and Sandbag to Shoulder on Saturday and with around 400 entries through all the different weight divisions, it made for a very long day.

“Saturday was supposed to finish up at 6pm but it ended up a 14 hour day, which was rediculous,” he said.

“Some guys were going to have a sleep in between events because there was like three hour waits, but if I went to sleep I wouldn’t get back up again!

“So it was a case of keeping hydrated, keeping fuelled with food and trying to keep warm.”

The Sunday went a little bit more to schedule with only the top 10 in each category competing in the Car Walk, Circus Dumbell and then the infamous Atlas Stones as McNamee went from first to fourth to third, earning his coveted bronze medal, cheered on by his supportive partner, Duibheasa Crossan, who capped their time in Florida by saying yes to a very important question in front of Cinderella’s Castle at Walt Disney World!