Official USA vs. World Thread

[DaneGarreau]

Got a text from Travis a few minutes ago.

Team USA 3 event wins, Team World 0 wins.

Travis said that Derek Crushed the log, He crushed the conans, and usa won the deadlift 28 reps to 26(or 26 to 24).

[rjpe99]

Oh yeah baby!!!!!! Go USA! Good job Derek!

[Jonathan Creason]

Usa!!! Usa!!! Usa!!!

[ADAMBAUER]

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[Kalle Beck]

Go for the sweep! Keep it up USA!

[dcarroll]

Fantastic. Dane any word on how Nick is doing?

[Jared Enderton]

wow!!! I hope they keep it going!!!

[DKirby]

330 log: each team had 3 team members, as many tags in 3 min as they wanted, for total reps. I think Team USA (Derek Poundstone, Van Hatfield, Walt Gogola had 18 reps and team World had 16. Derek had over half the reps himself in 2 turns.

Conan's Wheel: At the handle was weighed to be about 140 empty, plus 670 free weights, so was about 810 Conan's. Each team had 3 guys go, combined the distance of all 3. Team USA with Derek, Travis, and Nick might have been close to 230 something feet combined, beating team World by 20.5 feet, I don't remember the exact distances

Hummer tire deadlift. Each team had 3 members, as many tags in 3 minutes as they wanted, for total reps. Last year with the Hummer Tire DL at the Philli qualifier competitors had to stand on double mats, so might have been about an 16" pull. With the 3 tires was about 785 (Last year's 3 tires were supposedly 870, and thats what the weight was initially reported as being this year. But this year was 3 different tires (weighed Sun on the Linden Crew big scale to be 115 each), and a different bar, weighed 85 lbs, thats 775 plus plus the big collars used Fri night). This year entire area was covered by the mats, so was about an 18" pull I was told. Still absolutley incredible to see the reps these guys were getting with that much weight. Team USA, with Derek, Nick, and Van pulling, I think had 29 reps, team world 26.

Team World was hampered by the fact that their 4th team member, Robert Schzepanski of Poland, I heard ranked 6th in IFSA World Standings missed not only his 1st flight, but then his rescheduled one, and now isn't making the trip, so Zydrunas Savickas (ranked 1st IFSA World rankings), Vasyl Virastyuk, (ranked 3rd) Andrus Murumets (ranked 5th) all went on all 3 events, which was worse for them since they were done in a little over an hr. Given the fact that the Team USA has 4 members plus an alternate (Walt) doing a couple of events) and Team World's 3 guys will have to all do all 4 events tomorrow, its looking really good for Team USA, which only has to win one more event to clinch. :mag: Basically Schzepanski screwed the other 3 guys on Team World by not making his flights leaving them a little shorthanded.

[DKirby]

Here some pics from myself, Al Thompson, Derek Poundstone, Zydrunas at the Phillis vs Mets game yesterday afternoon. Vasyl and Andrus were also up in the stands- they didn't want to come down onto the field. Derek and Zydrunas did a couple of minute sppof with the Philli's mascot at the end of the 5th inning in front of approximately 35,000 (Citizen's Bank Park hold about 45,000). Had to crop the heck out of these pics to get them to download, so you can't see Derek and Zydrunas up on the jumbotoron.

[DKirby]

I don't have any Pics from the Log Press since I was spotting. Pic of the competitors and some of the Conan'a wheel. 1st one is of Zydrunas getting ready to go (can't see the crowd, which is on the other 3 sides). 2nd one isn't a good quality pic, but is a good view of Travis with Nick and Derek giving encouragement and crowd in the background. Have a bunch of other pics, but they aren't worth posting because of poor quality or you have to crop them too much to get them to upload on here.

[DKirby]

Here's some of the hummer DL. 1st is of Vasyl I think. 2nd one is of Murumets. 3rd one is of Zydrunas. 4th one is of Vasyl again. 5th and 6th one is of Derek. Next is Van getting ready to go. Last one is of Nick.

[Jonathan Macfarlane]

Awesome stuff.

That pic of Zydrunas and Derek standing around is insane. It's pretty much Derek "Yes, these guns are illegal" Poundstone! They put both Ronnie Coleman and Will Ferrell to shame.:M:

[Michael Douglas - uk]

Awesome stuff.

That pic of Zydrunas and Derek standing around is insane. It's pretty much Derek "Yes, these guns are illegal" Poundstone! They put both Ronnie Coleman and Will Ferrell to shame.:M:


wow ! its seems like ive massivley underestimated team usa, poundstones looks like an absolute monster in the pics.

Even though team world are a man down, its still good work for the yanks, im very impressed !

[Jamie.H.]

Derek look huge, go team USA!! looks a really good turn out with the fans, AWESOME!!!!

[Michael Douglas - uk]

Derek look huge, go team USA!! looks a really good turn out with the fans, AWESOME!!!!

you american chaps are really lucky at the minute with the strength of your athletes, sadly i think the uk are a few years away from being able to compete in a team event with your guys.

Enjoy !

[Michael Douglas - uk]

you american chaps are really lucky at the minute with the strength of your athletes, sadly i think the uk are a few years away from being able to compete in a team event with your guys.

Enjoy !


However - England will bring home the worlds strongest man title this year !

[Billy Wolt]

so basically it's 4 guys vs 3 guys and team world has managed to keep it close????

i'd say team world is doing awesome if that is the case.

[GregMonfredo]

Did they have to clean that log each rep? or just 1 clean and press for reps?

[Michael Douglas - uk]

so basically it's 4 guys vs 3 guys and team world has managed to keep it close????

i'd say team world is doing awesome if that is the case.


yes but to be fair to the americans ( and i hope i get a green light for this one as ive just noticed im on a red) ! team world being a man down kind of evens things out, dont you think !. Viristruk would win wsm easily, big z would win wsm easily, Andrus Murumets would almost certainly get a podium finish, these kind of strongmen dont just rip the tshirts of their backs and pose, they are the real deal.

I cant knock the american team, truely world class. I cant wait to see this poundstone guy at the IFSA worlds, in fact I hope he jumps ship and competes in WSM.

People can knock IFSA, but i love the team events as it puts the excitment back into strongman. With SS we would just see four comps and wsm and no team events.

[DKirby]

http://www.americanstrongman.com/articles/detail.asp?ArtID=227

Yesterday I posted Team USA had 28 reps on log vs 26 for Team World. It was actually 18-16.

http://www.americanstrongman.com/articles/detail.asp?ArtID=228

It was Team World with Vasyl going against Derek tied in the arm-over arm truck pull, they both might have been something like 27.4 seconds in a 50 ft pull with a Hummer 2 hooked up behind a Ford 150. So the decision was made that the same 2 competitors would go again, and Vasyl beat Derek by a couple of seconds on the 2nd time.

Its was Nick on the 400 Farmer's for 50 ft then tagging Walt Gogola on the 900 yoke for 50 ft followed by tagging Travis for the sled pull with a Harley Davidson for 50 ft getting beaten by almost 9 seconds, 44 something to 35 something by Team World.

Then Nick and Travis, our 2 lightest and currently under 300 pound competitors (I missed most of this) getting beat by a couple of seconds on the 2 man truck pull (semi with a loaded down trailer).

Crowd was about the same as last night at the Lagoon- 500 to one thousand. For Team USA vs Team World it all comes down to the stones tonight in front of 7,000 at the Blue Rocks (Kansas City Class A advanced baseball team) stadium in Wilmington, DE tonight after the game. Winning team goes home with 10k and losing team 5k.

[Kristyn Vytlacil]

Just heard that TEAM USA won!!!

I don't know any of the details though... sorry.

[DKirby]

Stones were 305 lbs to 64" at 3rd base, , 350 lbs to 60" between 3rd and home, 380 lbs to 56' at home plate, 405 lbs to 52" between home and 1st, and 420 lbs to 48" at 1st base. Nick on the 1st 2 stones then tagged Derek for the 3rd and 4th stones, who tagged Travis to do the last one to beat Team World by about 2 seconds, 37 something to 39 something. Team USA takes the title :marv:

Last year it was a sold out, 7,000 crowd because there was fireworks after the game and after the stones, so the fireworks kept almost the whole crowd there to watch the stones. I think its been that way for the last 4 years. This year there was no fireworks after the game to keep the crowd, so the crowd was only maybe 3-4 k to begin with, and only I guestimate about a thousand stayed to watch Team USA vs Team World, and maybe 1/2 that for the 105k guys who went last. Was still great to see. No pics from me since I was one of the timers.

[TEXAS STONEMAN]

WE WON!!!!!!


...and before anyone starts saying "oh, Team World is keeping up with only three guys" remember that the events were set up and or changed to accomadate thier situation. 3 men were allowed, MAX, on the events that called for group work. We used Walt once as the alternate. They were given their choice for an alternate (Szczpansky's training partner who made his flights or anyone of the US guys who were there) and refused.
On the first day we went first on the log and had to put it all out. We won that event and got to go last on the other 2 events. We won both (conan's and DL) very easily and stopped in order to save energy. Team World really came back strong Saturday afternoon and won the 3 events by a close margin- tie on the arm over arm (the same 2 guys had to redo the event and Vasyl won by 2 seconds) , we got beat pretty bad on the medley, then they beat me and Nick by 2 seconds on the truck pull. It came down to the stones; we went first and managed to edge them out- 37-39 seconds.


Let freedom ring baby!!!
Naysayer's say what you will. We won fair and square. It was nice to not have to travel to their side of the planet for once!

[Michael Douglas - uk]

WE WON!!!!!!


...and before anyone starts saying "oh, Team World is keeping up with only three guys" remember that the events were set up and or changed to accomadate thier situation. 3 men were allowed, MAX, on the events that called for group work. We used Walt once as the alternate. They were given their choice for an alternate (Szczpansky's training partner who made his flights or anyone of the US guys who were there) and refused.
On the first day we went first on the log and had to put it all out. We won that event and got to go last on the other 2 events. We won both (conan's and DL) very easily and stopped in order to save energy. Team World really came back strong Saturday afternoon and won the 3 events by a close margin- tie on the arm over arm (the same 2 guys had to redo the event and Vasyl won by 2 seconds) , we got beat pretty bad on the medley, then they beat me and Nick by 2 seconds on the truck pull. It came down to the stones; we went first and managed to edge them out- 37-39 seconds.


Let freedom ring baby!!!
Naysayer's say what you will. We won fair and square. It was nice to not have to travel to their side of the planet for once!

well done to team USA - very impressive !

[Jeremy Leonard]

Congragulations.
Sounds like this was one heck of a show.

[Michael Douglas - uk]

well done to team USA - very impressive !


Unless, however the stones were worth double points then i would take all the good comments back ! :M: :M:

[Dan Harrison]

Unless, however the stones were worth double points then i would take all the good comments back ! :M: :M:

OOOHHHH!!! BURN!!!!!

Way to go, USA!!!!!!!

[GregMonfredo]

NICE!!! Thats soooo awesome. Congratulations USA!

[ADAMBAUER]

Way To Go Team USA!!

[Kalle Beck]

Good job Team USA! Now go grab some podium spots at Worlds!

[GregMonfredo]

Is there gonna be a dvd or will this be televised anywhere? I'm dying to see it.

[Jared Enderton]

awesome!!!!!!!

[ClayEdgin]

The best in the US beat the best in the world! That's friggin awesome. I think that if the US keeps up this kind of growing domination in strongman that someone in the higher echelons of IFSA or WSM are going to start changing the rules to not allow so Americans to qualify for their series anymore! haha

[Jamie.H.]

you american chaps are really lucky at the minute with the strength of your athletes, sadly i think the uk are a few years away from being able to compete in a team event with your guys.

Enjoy !

I'm from England mate!

[Michael Douglas - uk]

I'm from England mate!

Brilliant, Im really chuffed for you. :BB:

[Simon Webb]

Team USA were in a league of their own, looking like they had so many more reps than they did on the day!! They could have done so many more!! It was an awsome show really great to watch, another team member for Team World wouldn't have made a difference. USA were on fire!! Nice to see Travis back to his old self again!! Well done again to him, Derek, Nick, Van and Walt you guys ROCK!!!!!!

:YR:

[tom_mcclure]

Derek, Travis, Van, Nick, Walt!! Good job guys, I am not surprised at all, I knew you could beat any of the top guys out there. What's even better is that you did it here in front of the american crowd. NICE!!!

[Mac Smith]

WAY TO GO TEAM USA!!! That's an awesome achievement!!! Mad props to all the cats on the squad!!

[Gags]

i have video of the first three events...ill post them up tomorrow...out of town until then

[MarshallWhite]

There is no higher honor than representing your country and to dominate makes it all the sweeter....Way to go USA!

[Kevin Cronin]

so much to write, no patience to write it all right now. here's a pic for yall. It's a small one but the big one was too large and teh board wouldnt let me upload

[Jeff Bach]

WE WON!!!!!!


...and before anyone starts saying "oh, Team World is keeping up with only three guys" remember that the events were set up and or changed to accomadate thier situation. 3 men were allowed, MAX, on the events that called for group work. We used Walt once as the alternate. They were given their choice for an alternate (Szczpansky's training partner who made his flights or anyone of the US guys who were there) and refused.
On the first day we went first on the log and had to put it all out. We won that event and got to go last on the other 2 events. We won both (conan's and DL) very easily and stopped in order to save energy. Team World really came back strong Saturday afternoon and won the 3 events by a close margin- tie on the arm over arm (the same 2 guys had to redo the event and Vasyl won by 2 seconds) , we got beat pretty bad on the medley, then they beat me and Nick by 2 seconds on the truck pull. It came down to the stones; we went first and managed to edge them out- 37-39 seconds.


Let freedom ring baby!!!
Naysayer's say what you will. We won fair and square. It was nice to not have to travel to their side of the planet for once!

Travis,

You guys kicked ass against the best in the world. No need to get defensive. Relax man and just keep up the good work.

I think your win did speaks for itself.

[DKirby]

I just saw a 10-15 second piece on the contest on the Fox 29 10 PM news. They called it a "powerlifting contest". :confused: and showed a couple of guys doing the Hummer DL. Problem was, they weren't sports reporters, so they were totally clueless.

[JustinHulick]

CONGRATS GUYS! I said from day 1 USA would win, and you backed up my statement. I am so proud right now! Once again Congrats to everyone who helped make this happen.

[Derek Poundstone]

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!! Excellent write-up Doug, thanks for all your support and help!

Also, I got really sick a few days before the contest but was already commited to doing the show! Day 1 I was able to keep it together but during day 2 I felt 10 lbs of crap in a 5 lb bag!! We switch a few of guys around cause after the arm over arm pull I was sucking wind, I was worthless to the team!!

[Steve Kirit]

A wonderful accomplishment. Al puts on a great show in Philly as well, it's always alot of fun.
What a great job I am pleasantly surprised.

[DaneGarreau]

Great Job Guys!!! If I'm not mistaken this is the first ever victory for Team USA in a team comp. :YR:

[Jonathan Creason]

Awesome job, Team USA!

[chad_coy]

GREAT JOB GUYS!

Dane,

04 North American Team Championships...Team USA( Coy,Brown,Gogola,Anderson and Spybrooke) over Team Canada.

05 Team North America( Ostland,Higa,Coy, Ed Brost-can't remember the other two Canadians-sorry) over Team Europe....Ladysmith BC WORLD STRONGMAN CUP

[Troy Zama]

Excellent work guys :marv:

[Nick Best]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the kind words. It was awesome we were a team!! When one of us was down or not feeling well the others covered no ego's just team. I would like to say thanks to Al, Dione, Willie, and all the loaders for a great contest, they worked there asses off, setting up, picking up all the athletes, and getting things to run smoothly. To Travis, Derek, Van, and Walt it was an honor to be on the team with you guys and to accomplish what some people said we couldn't do. We better be ready for worlds!!!

Nick

[Paul F.X. Armstrong]

Congratulations to Team USA-

[DKirby]

I posted numerous pics back on ages 1 oand 2 of this message string. I am not a camera guy, and have rarely tried to upload pics onto a computer before. The pics were all over 1 kb, and it would only let me upload 439 I think it was mb. So I thought the only way to get them to upload was to crop the heck out of the pics, and when I uploaded them, they were way blown up you had to scroll all over to see the pics. Earlier today someone told me about going to MS Paint and using resize/skew to compress the pics. I did that, deleted the jacked up pics, and re-loaded uncropped and they all fit on a page so you don't have to scroll all over to see them. While I'm at it, here's some more pics from Saturday at Fairmont Park:

1st 3 are Vasyl on the arm over arm. Next 2 are Derek on the arm over arm. Next 2 are Vasyl on the arm over arm 2nd round, then 2 more of Derek again on his 2nd pull. Thats all I got of the Team USA on Sat. For the medley I was one of the timers, and I didn't get any pics of Nick and Travis on the the 2 man double semi & loaded trailer pull. Only got pics of Vasyl and Zydrunas. Got no pics of the stones as again I was one of the timers.

[DKirby]

The last one of Vasyl and Zydrunas- wouldn't fit on the last page.

[Kevin Cronin]

OK, now that I'm rested up, a few thoughts.

-Vasyl is taller in person, Murumets is smaller than I expected. Van Hatfield is THICK as hell. All the US guys are really cool, got to talk with each of them for a bit.

-On the log Walt has a really impressive split jerk technique. You dont often see that with a log, but he has it down. Derek got HALF of the team reps here, 5 on his first tag, then 3, then 1

-Conan's wheel was actually pretty fun to watch. Ortmayer was FIRED UP and took it, I believe 1.25 laps, which, along with Nick's (?) .75 laps, was enough to tie Team world. Then Derek brought it a half lap just to punctuate it.

- On the deadlift team world went first and got 26 reps with the 785lb 18" pull. Derek was first for the USA and pulled 12!!! I may be biased, but I was just really really impressed with Derek getting almost 50% of the reps needed to win in ONE SHOT.

-The first 3 events took place at The Lagoon, a bar/club type place that also had a hotel next to it. The events were run on the dance floor which was slightly sunken in from the bars around it, giving it a cool kind of amphitheater effect. There were a LOT of people there. I'm not sure how many people, and I'm not sure how into it they were, since I had my back turned most of the time just watching the show, but there were a lot. I'm guessing that's why it had to be run so fast, that teh bar wanted teh dance floor for their busy friday night. I actually heard some of the spectators who were there to see the strongman that it had gone TOO fast, that they were just getting into it.

-Next day started with the arm over arm truck pull - Vasyl and Derek tied on the first run. Again, I dunno how it happens, but it did. From what I understood the World guys were basically given a choice to do it over again or keep the tie, since they were the ones who NEEDED the win if they hoped to do anything but tie. They chose to go again and Vasyl took 2 seconds off his time, while I believe Derek hit his same time.

-I missed the US yoke and drag legs of the medley because I had to reset the farmers. Nick stumbled a little out of the gates, but recovered pretty quickly. Once team world was up tho, Andrus Murumets SMOKED the 400/hand farmers. Another one of teh loaders said that Murumets said he has done 450/hand for 100 feet with a turn. unreal. Zydrunas also moved VERY fast on the drag portion, Team World won by 10 seconds

-With the two man truck pull, the US chose two of its faster guys, Nick and Travis (I think) while team world chose their two heaviest, Zydrunas and Vasyl. I say "i think" because I had to go to the bathroom in between the medley and the truck pull. I kept trying to hold it becasue I was sure the truck pull would start any minute. Finally I HAD to go, and wouldnt you know it, the US goes while I'm in a port-a-potty. Awesome. Thought I'd share that with yall. Then team World went and won by two seconds. Moving on.

-So it all came down to the stones. I told Dione she couldn't have scripted it any better if she tried. I was timing the split on the second box, and team world was actually ahead (by 2 seconds) at both the second and third box. Something happened on the fourth or fifth to slow them down a full 4 seconds.

As a general observation, working an event is kind of strange in that you have a better view than the spectators, and you're always in front of the event as opposed to the competitors who may be sitting down, getting a drink or whatever, but you completely miss other things because you're busy resetting things, or focused on the stopwatch instead of which team member is ACTUALLY lifting. You also dont really check scores in between events because you're setting up the next event.

EDIT: cuz I should also add how many people took the extra time to thank the loaders for the help this weekend. It was my pleasure helping and being involved, but it's nice to hear the appreciation as well. also, that is me squatting on my haunches watchign Derek in the arm over arm pull in the third pic.

Finally, I'll just add that it is surreal how much the internet affects who is "known" in the strongman world. I had several people tell me they remembered my name from this website, and I havent done s--t in this sport. On the other hand I met Scott Brengal Friday night and only VAGUELY remembered his name from the competitor list. Here he is, one of the top 12 US LW pros, and I barely recognize the name. I said "you dont post much on the internet, do you?" He rolled his eyes and said no, that some people need to be more aware of how they represent themselves on the internet.

[Steve Maloney]

Huge crowds and I have never seen so many banners at an event like that before.

[Matt Parkes]

GREAT JOB GUYS!

Dane,

04 North American Team Championships...Team USA( Coy,Brown,Gogola,Anderson and Spybrooke) over Team Canada.

05 Team North America( Ostland,Higa,Coy, Ed Brost-can't remember the other two Canadians-sorry) over Team Europe....Ladysmith BC WORLD STRONGMAN CUP

Randy Davis and Mike Bade. Nice job team USA!!!

[Kevin Cronin]

Huge crowds and I have never seen so many banners at an event like that before.

this is hilarious for more reasons than you know

[Steve Kirit]

GREAT JOB GUYS!

Dane,

04 North American Team Championships...Team USA( Coy,Brown,Gogola,Anderson and Spybrooke) over Team Canada.

05 Team North America( Ostland,Higa,Coy, Ed Brost-can't remember the other two Canadians-sorry) over Team Europe....Ladysmith BC WORLD STRONGMAN CUP



Nov 03 Atlanta team USA beat Team World

Pfister
Kirit
Philippi
Pope
Marunde


Karlson
Pudz
Zavickas
Dymek
Girard/Dolan

[Gags]

vids from fri night have been posted in member's media

[chad_coy]

Thanks Matt and Steve!

[Steve Pulcinella]

Yes, The strongest men in the world were pouring their sweat and blood out for us but HOLY CRAP did you see the banners??? ha ha.....WTF?

Huge crowds and I have never seen so many banners at an event like that before.

[Ian Duggan]

Nov 03 Atlanta team USA beat Team World

Pfister
Kirit
Philippi
Pope
Marunde


Karlson
Pudz
Zavickas
Dymek
Girard/Dolan
Wow. Wicked line up.

Congrats guys, that's a big win. There's a movement over in the UK pushing team strongman as the future of the sport. Looking at competitions like the one Steve mentioned, and the most recent one, it's not hard to see why...

[Al Thompson]

there are some great photos like this one of the Pacifico Ford Liberty Strongman Classic going up at www.americanstrongman.org. Photos by Pete Lerro of Contrast Photography except the Phillies which were by Doug Kirby (except the one with Doug in it...a Phillies official took that photo). This is Van Hatfield in the Mighty Muffler tire deadlift event, Team USA vs. Team World.

[Adam Keep]

Does the guy have photos of everyone? I tried looking at his site, but couldn't find anything.

[Al Thompson]

there are 1100 photos...go to contrastphotography.com to contact Pete