Strongest men
Prince County Exhibition’s top competitors entered in national competition
Anyone who has attended the Prince County Exhibition’s Strongest Man competition in recent years will be familiar with the four-man team that will be representing P.E.I. at the National Strongman Championship this Saturday in Bathurst, N.B.
Alex Wallace, Mitch Kinch and Mitch Illsley, who finished, first, second and third respectively at this year’s Strongest Man in P.E.I. competition, are attending the national competition along with George Kinch.
The latter was the official judge for the Alberton competition but he is also an experienced strongman competitor and he is entered in the Men’s Masters, 90 kg+ category.
Mitch Kinch and Mitch Illsley are entered in the men’s superheavyweight category (122Kg+), while Wallace is competing in the men’s light heavyweight (90 – 104.5 kg) category. This is the third year for the national competition, but the first time the four athletes from P.E.I. are entered.
“You go for the win right ofthe-bat,” is how Wallace described the Team P.E.I. strategy.
“If you go all-out in your first event, two things are going to happen, you are going to get on a roll and you get the adrenalin and it’s going to be a good day for you.”
The higher order of finish in an event, he anticipates, gives a competitor an advantage of going up against the weight later in the second event.
Unlike the P.E.I. competition and many other strongman competitions across Atlantic Canada, the national competition is split into weight divisions and the weights being lifted or carried vary depending on division.
For instance, in the first event, Illsley and Mitch Kinch
will be required to carry a 750pound yoke while Wallace and George Kinch will have a 600pound yoke.
The team is heading across with a certain degree of swagger.
“We practice and practice and practice the events, so it’s going to be what it’s going to be. We’ve done four or five competitions this summer. We are as prepared as we are ever going to be,” said the masters’ competitor.
Winning the Canadian championship in their category would qualify them for the Arnold Classic and a competition in Las Vegas.
If one or all qualify, George Kinch said, they are all committed to helping with the preparation to get to the next level.
The final event, the stone over
a bar, although more suited to taller lifters, is Wallace’s preferred event. Competitors get to toss it over a bar as many times as they can in a minute.
“There are very few in Atlantic Canada who would compete with Alex when he’s doing the stones anyway, doesn’t matter what size you are,” George Kinch suggested.
He’s looking forward to the giant dumbbell press, locking in an awkward 130-pound weight as many times as he can in a minute.
“You Kinches are all good pressers,” Illsley noted.
Illsley is excited about carrying the 350–pound husafell stone, suggesting it should be easier to grip than the Atlas stone he practices with. He’s not so fond of the yoke but said he had good results the
last time he practiced with it.
An axle deadlift is the other event in the competition.
“None of the events are bad for us,” Wallace observed.
“The important thing for us, going into this competition, is doing the best we can in each event.”
While competitors lift awkward weights in competition, the preparation always comes back to conventional weights
and the deadlifts, squats and presses.
“The beauty of strongman, you compromise your body and put it in an awkward position lifting a heavy amount of weight,” said Wallace.
“At the end of the day, it’s all about going and lifting that object and doing the best you can.”