Pulling his weight
HELENSVALE man mountain Grant Edwards is about to shoulder a heavy workload.
But it’s not like the 56-year-old high-ranking Australian law enforcement officer will be daunted by a weighty masters schedule that will see him compete in shot put, discus, weight throw, hammer throw and “the dreaded javelin”.
He’s a former World Strongest Man competitor and three-time Australia’s Strongest Man who once dabbled in American football in Hawaii, competed in the World Highland Games in Scotland and single-handedly pulled a 201-tonne steam locomotive 35m, with the coal and water trucks attached for good measure.
At 195cm and 130kg he cuts an imposing figure. “Fitness has been a part of my life since as long as I can remember,” he told ABC Gold Coast radio. “I was in Canberra in the early 90s at the Australian National University I started training at the gym and one of the fellows I use to compete against in the hammer throw years earlier told me about a strongman event he was starting up.
“They held them at the Westfield shopping centres and we had to lift big stones and hold up heavy Scottish axes for as long as we could.
“We toured the state and it was a lot of fun to do.”
Edwards said his train pull was filmed for the 10th anniversary of the BBC Record Breakers television program. “The train engineer was quite nervous because where I was positioned between the rails, he couldn’t see me, and they brought in a whole lot of schoolkids to watch,” he said.
“I was pulling the train quite easily I thought, and I saw the line I had to reach and suddenly the train just stopped … I was pulling for about a minute and nothing was happening. “Then the engineer ran
down and apologised. He saw all the kids putting their hands in the air in excitement, and in ‘rail speak’ that means stop.
“He pulled on the emergency brake because he didn’t want to run over me.”
These days, Rogers is an international liaison officer with the Australian Federal Police.
Back home, Edwards is looking forward to this week’s Pan Pacs field events at the newly installed IAAFaccredited athletics track at the Runaway Bay Sports Super Centre.
He’ll star in three days of track and field competition that starts on Friday at 9am.