2006 World's Strongest Man

The 25 competitors were split into five separate heats, each consisting of six events. After each event each competitor was given points, from 5 for first to 1 for last. Half points occurred if more than one competitor had the same result, and no points were scored if a competitor did not take part in an event. The points were tallied after the six events and the two competitors with the most points from each heat progressed to the final. The final consisted of seven events and the champion was the competitor with the most points after all of the events.

The Head referee was Colin Bryce, assisted by Svend Karlsen (the 2001 World's Strongest Man). Jouko Ahola, World's Strongest Man winner from 1997 and 1999, was the equipment manager.

There were a total of 11 different events used in the competition:

• Farmer's Walk
• Keg Toss
• Car Dead Lift
• Car Walk
• Overhead Stone Lift
• Barrel Loading Race
• Cannonball Carry & Sledge Drag
• Fingal Fingers[1]
• Power Stairs
• Bus Pull
• Atlas Stones[2]

Mariusz Pudzianowski, the reigning champion, started well in the final. He was joint first with Mark Felix in the Dead Lift, with 16 lifts and won the power stairs in 26.33 seconds, almost 8 seconds faster than second placed Tarmo Mitt. The power stairs proved a tough task for others though, Raivis Vidzis coped the worst but managed to carry on.[4] In the 3rd event, the overhead stone lift, Phil Pfister dominated and lifted all 4 stones, while no other competitor could lift more than 2. The top 5 after the first day of the final was:

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Poland	28.5
2	Mark Felix	Grenada	21.5
3	Phil Pfister	United States	21
4	Tarmo Mitt	Estonia	17
5	Don Pope	United States	17

Pfister dramatically closed the gap to Pudzianowski in the 2 events on day 2 of the final as he won both of them. Pudzianowski struggled to 6th in the Fingal Fingers, while Pfister set a world record time of 5 fingers in 31.92 seconds. Remarkably, in the bus pull, none of the 10 finalists successfully finished the course, but Pfister managed to pull his bus just 12 centimetres further than Pudzianowski to win the event, leaving himself 1.5 points behind the Polish athlete. The top 5 after the second day of the final was:

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Poland	42.5
2	Phil Pfister	United States	41
3	Don Pope	United States	32
4	Mark Felix	Grenada	30.5
5	Tarmo Mitt	Estonia	27

Despite having won 3 events in a row, many people expected Pfister to struggle in the Car Walk.[5] Moreover, once Pudzianowski had set a blistering time of 27.4 seconds, no-one expected Pfister to get anywhere close to him, but to everyone's amazement, Pfister somehow managed to win the event by just over half a second, meaning the 2006 WSM would go right down to the wire in the Atlas Stones and, with just half a point separating them, they would be drawn to compete together. The Atlas Stones proved to be extremely tight but Pudzianowksi managed to gain a slight lead by the fourth stone. However, Pfister managed to catch up on the last stone and placed his stone on the platform a fraction of a second before Pudzianowski. The Pole, clearly stunned that he had been beaten, did not even correctly place the stone in the platform's groove and simply walked away in disgust as Pfister let out a great celebratory roar. Don Pope recovered well to finish 3rd having come last in the first event. The final results:[6]

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Phil Pfister	United States	61
2	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Poland	57.5
3	Don Pope	United States	45
4	Mark Felix	Grenada	38.5
5	Tarmo Mitt	Estonia	38
6	Sebastian Wenta	Poland	36.5
7	Terry Hollands	United Kingdom	30
8	Jarek Dymek	Poland	29
9	Raivis Vidzis	Latvia	26
10	Sławomir Toczek	Poland	20.5

• Official site
• Official World's Strongest Man Super Series site