POWER TEST
Caballeros de Yuma to host inaugural strongman competition
Community members will have the chance to secure bragging rights as the strongest man or strongest woman in this part of the Southwest when the Caballeros de Yuma host the Bull of the Desert competition.
“It started as an idea to piggy-back on the annual balloon festival to have something for spectators to do during the day,” said Travis Smith, member of the Caballeros de Yuma and chairman for the strongman competition. “The group decided that this warranted having its own standalone event.”
Smith added competitions of strength simply seemed ideal as a crowd pleaser.
“It’s getting more popular these days,” he added. “The Bull of the Desert was patterned off the World’s Strongest Man Competition I used to watch when I was a kid. They actually have strongman contests, at least two or three a day, all over the country.”
The competition will be a spectator event and the public is invited to the show, which will take place Saturday, Feb. 17, at Desert Sun Stadium, 1280 W. Desert Sun Drive.
Gates open at 9 a.m. The competition will commence at 10 a.m. and continue until 6 p.m. Drinks and concessions will be available for purchase. The cost of admission is $5 per person.
This will be the first-ever strongman competition for the Caballeros, a volunteer organization of local businessmen. Smith said about a dozen competitors aged 18 and older have entered, though he is hoping for more to sign up before the event. There will be both men and women categories.
Israel Trevino, who is currently registered for the competition, said he, like Smith, grew up watching strongman competitions on television, “in awe” of the competitors who seemed “almost inhuman.”
“I’ve always wanted to try one,
but it’s hard to find one on the west coast that’s for amateurs,” Trevino said. “I figure this is a good starting point.”
The 32-year-old added that it was not until he became an adult that he made the choice to enter the athletic world.
“I was not athletic in high school at all,” he said. “After high school I wanted to become a body builder and from there I went to power lifting. I’ve placed first in a few power lifting competitions.”
Trevino says he has been training since November with a power lifting cycle and physical conditioning for the event here.
“I know the fitness community in Yuma is growing,” Trevino said. “I feel the Bull of the Desert contest promotes healthy competition between gyms and athletes in town.”
For the past few weeks, Smith said the Caballeros de Yuma have been holding training sessions for the contestants to not only help prepare them, but to test out the challenges lined up for the competition.
Competitors from around the Southwest will be vying for the title as Yuma’s strongest man and woman by taking part in various contests of strength including a truck pull, a keg press, lifting atlas stones, a car dead lift and a tire flip/sandbag medley.
Spectators will also have a chance to try out some of the challenges during the show, Smith noted, provided they sign a waiver. According to Smith, competitors will be strapped into a harness for the truck pull. Trucks to be pulled will be in neutral for a rolling pull, he added.
Each competitor will then have a set amount of time to reach a certain distance during the pull, which will include trucks that weigh around 22,000 pounds, Smith said.
During the keg press, Smith explained competitors will have to lift kegs filled with sand for a complete overhead press. Contestants will begin with lighter kegs and then move on to the heavier ones.
“It will take somebody who is pretty strong to go through all of them,” Smith noted.
The atlas stones, he said, are concrete stones of varying weights that competitors will have to lift over a bar of a certain height.
For the car dead lift, Smith said each vehicle will be on a frame for the competitors to lift. The tire flip/sandbag medley will consist of competitors flipping large “loader” tires and carrying sand bags weighing around 125 pounds for a certain distance while being timed.
Winners of each category will receive a medal. The overall winners who come out on top for most of the challenges will be crowned Yuma’s strongest man and Yuma’s strongest woman.
The overall victors will also receive a gold medal and their names will be engraved on a UFC-style belt to be hung at their gym(s) of choice.
Weight classes are divided into two categories each for men (under 200 pounds/over 200 pounds) and women (under 165 pounds/over 165 pounds). Registration for the contest is $75 for competitors. For more information, call (928) 343-1715.