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2017 October - Ft. Lauderdale Fit Expo Visegrip Viking - Eric Roussin


Eric Roussin

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Sitting at the airport waiting to fly home, so I figured I'd do a contest write-up...

This weekend I competed in Odd Haugen's Visegrip Viking Armlifting contest at the Fort Lauderdale Fit Expo. Heading into the weekend, I expected this contest wouldn't have a ton of participants, given that King Kong is a week away and also because I'm not aware of many gripsters who live in Florida. It turns out I was right, but the good news is that Odd allowed all of the strongmen competitors to compete in the grip events for free, so I think we ended up with 13 competitors. This made the weekend much more fun, plus it allowed several of the strongmen to discover that they are quite good at many of the grip events.

Day 1 of the contest is traditionally my better day at Odd's contests, because it features two thick bar events (my specialty). Almost all of the events were contested using a Last Man Standing format, which I really like.

Event 1 - Rolling Thunder:

10-lb jumps were used for the Rolling Thunder. Four competitors managed lifts north of 200 lbs. 220-lb strongman competitor Adam Clawson got 207, and this was the first time he touched the handle! 290-lb strongman competitor Tom Bryson (from Canada) made it to 217. Martins Licis (4th place finisher at this year's World's Strongest Man contest) and I both had successful lifts at 227, but failed at 237. But because I weighed 100 lbs less than Martins, I was given the event win.

Event 2 - Double Overhand Axle Deadlift:

20-lb jumps were used for the Axle event. The same four guys made it to the top of the standings. Adam got 395 lbs (I think), while Tom and I nailed 415. Tom came closer than me in his attempt at 435. I feel the Canadian record for the Axle may soon fall. Because Martins was the only won to lift 435, he the added another 30 or 40 lbs for a challenge, but it proved to be too much.

Event 3 - Silver Bullet

I feel bad for first time competitors in this event, because oftentimes they aren't aware of how to set a gripper (or the importance of it). A few people still managed to hold the bullet a few seconds with the CoC 3, but most dropped down to use the CoC 2. I wasn't sure if I would use my right hand (my stronger hand for crushing) or my left. I suffered some type of strain with my right middle finger when lifting the Hub two months ago, and it hasn't yet fully recovered. In doing some gripper work over the past several weeks, I was experiencing pain. But when I warmed up with a light gripper prior to the Silver Bullet event, it didn't feel too bad so I decided to give it a go. I experienced much less pain than I expected, and managed to hold on for almost 24 seconds. This was enough for the win. Martins came in second with a hold of 16 seconds.

Event 4 - Hub:

Day 2 started with the Hub. Many of the strongmen competitors did well in this event. I think most managed lifts in excess of 50 lbs. I was happy to take third in this event, with a near PR lift of 64 lbs. Tom Bryson and Martins Licis tied with lifts of 69, but because Tom was a bit lighter he was given the event win.

Event 5 - Excalibur:

Heading into the last event, I was tied in points with Martins in the overall standings. I knew that if I tied him in the Excalibur event I would be awarded the overall title because I'm lighter. But I didn't expect it to be easy to tie him in this event -- I suspected he would be good at it. For those who aren't aware, the Excalibur is similar to a 2" vertical bar handle that is attached to a loading pin (kind of like the FBBC Jug). Tom, Martins, and I had made it all the way up to 263 lbs, but it was clear that all three of us were getting close to our limits. Martins requested a 5-lb increase, but I was pushing for 10. I was expecting that we would all fail on 273, which would have given me the win, but Martins was on to me. So we just went up by five, and only Martins was successful.

Martins was the overall winner, but I can't really be disappointed. I felt strong all weekend and was very satisfied with my performance. I hope I can keep this momentum going into next weekend for King Kong!

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3 hours ago, Eric Roussin said:

Sitting at the airport waiting to fly home, so I figured I'd do a contest write-up...

This weekend I competed in Odd Haugen's Visegrip Viking Armlifting contest at the Fort Lauderdale Fit Expo. Heading into the weekend, I expected this contest wouldn't have a ton of participants, given that King Kong is a week away and also because I'm not aware of many gripsters who live in Florida. It turns out I was right, but the good news is that Odd allowed all of the strongmen competitors to compete in the grip events for free, so I think we ended up with 13 competitors. This made the weekend much more fun, plus it allowed several of the strongmen to discover that they are quite good at many of the grip events.

Day 1 of the contest is traditionally my better day at Odd's contests, because it features two thick bar events (my specialty). Almost all of the events were contested using a Last Man Standing format, which I really like.

Event 1 - Rolling Thunder:

10-lb jumps were used for the Rolling Thunder. Four competitors managed lifts north of 200 lbs. 220-lb strongman competitor Adam Clawson got 207, and this was the first time he touched the handle! 290-lb strongman competitor Tom Bryson (from Canada) made it to 217. Martins Licis (4th place finisher at this year's World's Strongest Man contest) and I both had successful lifts at 227, but failed at 237. But because I weighed 100 lbs less than Martins, I was given the event win.

Event 2 - Double Overhand Axle Deadlift:

20-lb jumps were used for the Axle event. The same four guys made it to the top of the standings. Adam got 395 lbs (I think), while Tom and I nailed 415. Tom came closer than me in his attempt at 435. I feel the Canadian record for the Axle may soon fall. Because Martins was the only won to lift 435, he the added another 30 or 40 lbs for a challenge, but it proved to be too much.

Event 3 - Silver Bullet

I feel bad for first time competitors in this event, because oftentimes they aren't aware of how to set a gripper (or the importance of it). A few people still managed to hold the bullet a few seconds with the CoC 3, but most dropped down to use the CoC 2. I wasn't sure if I would use my right hand (my stronger hand for crushing) or my left. I suffered some type of strain with my right middle finger when lifting the Hub two months ago, and it hasn't yet fully recovered. In doing some gripper work over the past several weeks, I was experiencing pain. But when I warmed up with a light gripper prior to the Silver Bullet event, it didn't feel too bad so I decided to give it a go. I experienced much less pain than I expected, and managed to hold on for almost 24 seconds. This was enough for the win. Martins came in second with a hold of 16 seconds.

Event 4 - Hub:

Day 2 started with the Hub. Many of the strongmen competitors did well in this event. I think most managed lifts in excess of 50 lbs. I was happy to take third in this event, with a near PR lift of 64 lbs. Tom Bryson and Martins Licis tied with lifts of 69, but because Tom was a bit lighter he was given the event win.

Event 5 - Excalibur:

Heading into the last event, I was tied in points with Martins in the overall standings. I knew that if I tied him in the Excalibur event I would be awarded the overall title because I'm lighter. But I didn't expect it to be easy to tie him in this event -- I suspected he would be good at it. For those who aren't aware, the Excalibur is similar to a 2" vertical bar handle that is attached to a loading pin (kind of like the FBBC Jug). Tom, Martins, and I had made it all the way up to 263 lbs, but it was clear that all three of us were getting close to our limits. Martins requested a 5-lb increase, but I was pushing for 10. I was expecting that we would all fail on 273, which would have given me the win, but Martins was on to me. So we just went up by five, and only Martins was successful.

Martins was the overall winner, but I can't really be disappointed. I felt strong all weekend and was very satisfied with my performance. I hope I can keep this momentum going into next weekend for King Kong!

Congrats Eric, very impressive numbers across the board!

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