Vidas Blekaitis claims Masters World Championship

Some quite incredible raw power saw Lithuanian Vidas Blekaitis take the Masters World Championship in Belfast, in what was the strongest ever line up seen at the Championships.

The first event was the Marshall’s truck pull – never an athletes favourite way to start the competition.  There were a large number of times under 28 seconds but it was the hot favourite and defending champion Mark Felix who finished the course in 25.85 seconds to take maximum 12 points over Polands Robert kalinowski and Vidas Blekaitis.

But Felix could only manage 4^th in the second event, the 200Kg Duck Walk and 400Kg tyre Flip, which saw him tied in 1^st place overall alongside Vidas Blekaitis and Robert Kalinowki, giving a clear indication of the battle that lay ahead.

The third event was the 130KG log for reps.  This was a hard event for Mark McLoughlin and Kalle lane with both men not managing a single rep.  However Vidas Blekaitis laid down the gauntlet by completing 16 reps, showing just how good his pure static strength is. It was a turning point for the Lithuanian as Kalinowski and Felix both managed just 6 reps, giving Blakaitis a 4 point cushion for the lead.

In the Axle Deadlift Medley (147Kg, 167Kg, 187Kg, 207Kg, 227Kg).  Vidas secured a second place, continuing his consistent excellent form.  Mark Felix showed he has the best grip in the world by completing all the axles in 23.98 seconds to bag first place, but only clawing back the 1 point on Blekaitis.

Gerhard Trawoger of Austria started the 250Kg Squat for Reps well with 9 reps but again it was the static beast Vidas Blekaitis who won the event with 15 reps.

The last event was the stones of strength.  Vidas Blekaitis still had a bit of work to do to secure the title.  Mark Felix done everything he could by finishing all the stones in 18.74 seconds but Vidas finished second in that event to secure his first Master World Championship andthe Marshalls trophy.   A late run from Sergey Kharlamov saw him make the podium.