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2021 International King Kong Grip Challenge - RESULTS


Eric Roussin

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As per tradition, I'd like to recognize some of the competitors who had some huge lifts in King Kong relative to their bodyweight.


First, the women:


Women who lifted 75% or more of their bodyweight with the 2.25” Crusher:
Zhirkova Elena – 86%
Dzyuba Inna – 79%
Zdorenko Anna – 77%
Ivchenko Anastasia – 77%


Women who lifted 70% or more of their bodyweight with the Grab Ball:
Nicole Kabey – 76%
Dzyuba Inna – 74%
Zdorenko Anna – 73%
Zhirkova Elena – 71%
Henna Nokkala – 70%


Women who lifted 35% or more of their bodyweight with the Finnish Ball:
Ripchanskaya Ekaterina – 40%
Pirozhenko Miroslava – 39%
Parhomenko Alla – 37%
Henna Nokkala – 36%
Zhirkova Elena – 36%


Women who lifted 80% or more of their bodyweight with the Little Big Horn:
Ripchanskaya Ekaterina – 88%
Zdorenko Anna – 87%
Zhirkova Elena – 82% 


Extra special congratulations to Zhirkova Elena for surpassing all four of these thresholds!

 

And for the men:


Men who lifted 110% or more of their bodyweight with the 2.25” Crusher:
Yves Gravelle – 137%
Tom Denmeade – 127%
Eric Roussin – 121%
Ben Cossey – 119%
Gil Goodman – 111%
Vakula Evgeniy – 111%
Tanner Merkle – 110%

Men who lifted 100% or more of their bodyweight with the Grab Ball:
Yves Gravelle – 128%
Tom Denmeade – 116%
Luke Weatherstone – 112%
Ben Cossey – 105%
Aaron Liu – 104%
Jari Taipale – 104%
Johannes Lampinen – 104%
Anthony Clarino – 103%

Men who lifted 45% or more of their bodyweight with the Finnish Ball:
Jerome Bloom – 58%
Ben Cossey – 54%
Yves Gravelle – 49%
Vakula Evgeniy – 49%
Anthony Clarino – 48%
Jari Taipale – 48%
Johannes Lampinen – 48%
Samuel Pöyry – 48%
Eric Roussin – 47%
Richard Hagn – 46%
Dennis Eichinger – 46%
Clint Ziegler – 45%

Men who lifted 115% or more of their bodyweight with the Little Big Horn:
Tom Denmeade – 143%
Yves Gravelle – 134%
Anthony Clarino – 132%
Vakula Evgeniy – 132%
Clint Ziegler – 130%
Grunskiy Dmitriy – 122%
Andrew Sasso – 122%
Johannes Lampinen – 116%
Dubovich Roman – 115%

With Yves Gravelle being the only man to surpass all four of these thresholds, it’s no surprise that the recipient of this year’s Exceptional Lifter award!
 

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My stray thoughts on some of the results:

Tom Denmeade is strong. To give you a sense of just how strong, he bombed out on one of the lifts and still managed to take third place in the 74 kg class! In fact, that whole Sydney crew is amazing. Five guys from the team finished in the top four of their respective weight classes.

Anyone else notice that Arto is walking away with three King Kong gorillas? One for winning the 120+ class, one for winning the masters division, and one for having the top lift with the Grab Ball!

The 83 kg class was more stacked than usual this year, with four guys cracking the top 20 overall standings. Last year, no one from the class made the top 35. Interestingly, each of the top four finishers in the 83 class won one of the four events.

We got to see the two Queen Kongs go head-to-head. Patricia's well-roundedness across all events proved to be the deciding factor, but man, can Sarah pull some heavy weight with the Crusher and LBH! No one was even in the same ballpark as her on these lifts.

The scores of those who finished in positions 2-6 in the overall standings were EXTREMELY close. Wow!

Ivan Pupchenko's devotion to the King Kong contest is truly remarkable. He travels to multiple locations in Ukraine to allow as many people to compete as possible. The result? 42 open divisions competitors and 10 youth competitors. He would have had even greater participation, but COVID has caused a lot of sickness in the country recently. He trained hard all year and managed to take third overall! Well done!

Yves Gravelle has a strenuous few days leading up to King Kong, doing a lot of climbing for a special video. I'd love to see what he could do if he really tried to peak for a grip contest.

Tanner Merkle is the MAN! First person to win the overall King Kong title three times, and he won them THREE YEARS IN A ROW!!!

 

Additional fun stats:

The following individuals have competed in at least three King Kong contests and have averaged a Top 20 finish in the overall standings. In brackets you will see the competitor’s average placing, his highest placing, his lowest placing, and the number of times he has competed. They are listed in descending order of average placing.

1 - Tanner Merkle (Av:1.80; H:1; L:4; Times:5)
2 - Jake Sahlaney (Av:4.00; H:3; L:5; Times:3)
3 - Kody Burns (Av:4.60; H:2; L:10; Times:5)
4 - Harri Tolonen (Av:5.40; H:4; L:8; Times:5)
5 - Jedd Johnson (Av:6.00; H:1; L:15; Times:9)
6 - Gil Goodman (Av:6.29; H:1; L:11; Times:7)
7 - Jesse Pynnönen (Av:7.20; H:2; L:14; Times:5)
8 - Jouni Mähönen (Av:9.57; H:2; L:21; Times:7)
9 - Arto Joronen (Av:9.67; H:6; L:14; Times:6)
10 - Alexandr Asinovskiy (Av:10.67; H:4; L:22; Times:3)
11 - Thomas Larsen (Av:12.00; H:9; L:15; Times:5)
12 - Eric Roussin (Av:12.22; H:6; L:21; Times:9)
13 - Joel Dircks (Av:12.40; H:9; L:16; Times:5)
14 - Kladiev Anton (Av:12.67; H:8; L:15; Times:3)
15 - Ivan Pupchenko (Av:13.57; H:3; L:30; Times:7)
16 - Brad Provick (Av:14.33; H:7; L:24; Times:3)
17 - Adam Glass (Av:14.67; H:4; L:26; Times:3)
18 - Sirko Petermann (Av:14.75; H:9; L:22; Times:4)
19 - Lucas Raymond (Av:16.14; H:6; L:35; Times:7)
20 - Steve Millard (Av:16.40; H:13; L:23; Times:5)
21 - Juha Lehtimäki (Av:17.00; H:15; L:20; Times:4)
22 - Dave Thornton (Av:19.50; H:5; L:50; Times:4)
23 - Abrikoskov Vladimir (Av:19.67; H:15; L:28; Times:3)

Tanner Merkle has the most overall wins with three.

Most Top Three Finishes (Overall):

Tanner Merkle – 4
Jedd Johnson – 3
Jouni Mähönen – 3 
Jesse Pynnönen – 2
Kody Burns – 2
Gil Goodman – 2
Alexey Tyukalov – 2

Most Top Five Finishes (Overall):

Jedd Johnson – 6
Tanner Merkle – 5
Harri Tolonen – 4
Kody Burns – 4
Gil Goodman – 3
Jouni Mähönen – 3 
Jake Sahlaney – 3

Most Top Ten Finishes (Overall):

Jedd Johnson – 7
Gil Goodman – 6
Kody Burns – 5 
Tanner Merkle – 5
Harri Tolonen – 5
Jesse Pynnönen – 4
Jouni Mähönen – 4
Eric Roussin – 4

Most Weight Class Titles:

Tanner Merkle – 5
Gil Goodman – 4
Kody Burns – 3
Harri Tolonen – 3
Jedd Johnson – 3

Most Exceptional Lifter Titles:

Tanner Merkle – 3
Yves Gravelle - 2

Only two athletes have competed in all nine King Kong contests: Eric Roussin and Jedd Johnson

Only two promoters have hosted King Kong venues all nine times: Eric Roussin and Andrew Pantke

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On 11/3/2021 at 8:38 PM, Eric Roussin said:

 

Thanks for the kind words Eric! Once again, I want to emphasize that all of our results are shown only thanks to the work that you and Andrew have done! If it weren't for your hard work, your dedication in holding this tournament for many years, most of the athletes on the list would never train so intensely and would not show their results, and some would not even know about this sport!

Our results are your results guys!!! 

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On 11/4/2021 at 6:24 PM, Ivan Pupchenko said:

Thanks for the kind words Eric! Once again, I want to emphasize that all of our results are shown only thanks to the work that you and Andrew have done! If it weren't for your hard work, your dedication in holding this tournament for many years, most of the athletes on the list would never train so intensely and would not show their results, and some would not even know about this sport!

Our results are your results guys!!! 

Kudos to all of you.  It is a small sport with no real opportunity for fame or fortune, and yet so many people give their time and even sometimes their own money to make it work.  I discovered it right as I was about to get divorced a few years ago, and I think in some ways it saved me; at least it made life very livable at a time when it could easily have been miserable.  Instead of misery I found friends, better fitness, new goals, new confidence.  Sometimes I have to miss this comp or another comp, but I always mean to be at the next one.  See y'all soon.

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  • 3 months later...
On 11/1/2021 at 7:34 AM, Eric Roussin said:

Venue Standings 

1 point per competitor + 5 points per 1st place finish, 4 points per 2nd place finish, 3 points per 3rd place finish, 2 points per 4th place finish, 1 point per 5th place finish (Youth Division Excluded)

Position – Venue – Host – Points

1 – Sumska, Ukraine – Ivan Pupchenko – 86 – TOP VENUE
 

Congratulations to Ivan Pupchenko for his accomplishment in Ukraine! 42 open division competitors! An all-time King Kong record!

And thanks to all promoters who make King Kong such a success!

Another good reason to be proud to have participated in the 2021 King Kong Contest.

🇺🇦

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8 hours ago, Hubgeezer said:

🇺🇦

Glory to Ukraine 🇺🇦 

 

We are praying for our warriors and helping them in any way we could.

 

I’m hearing explosions almost every 10 minutes for the last two hours.

The war is real.

 

 

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9 hours ago, insane.warrior said:

Glory to Ukraine 🇺🇦 

 

We are praying for our warriors and helping them in any way we could.

 

I’m hearing explosions almost every 10 minutes for the last two hours.

The war is real.

 

 

What part of the country do you live? Are you okay?

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17 hours ago, insane.warrior said:

Glory to Ukraine 🇺🇦 

 

We are praying for our warriors and helping them in any way we could.

 

I’m hearing explosions almost every 10 minutes for the last two hours.

The war is real.

 

 

Stay safe!

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18 hours ago, Hubgeezer said:

What part of the country do you live? Are you okay?

I am in the Mariupol right now.

Our city was bombed for 8 years. Since 2014.

 

Ivan Pupchenko is in Sumy.

There are a lot of terrible videos from there.

 

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On 2/27/2022 at 3:43 PM, insane.warrior said:

I am in the Mariupol right now.

Our city was bombed for 8 years. Since 2014.

 

Ivan Pupchenko is in Sumy.

There are a lot of terrible videos from there.

 

Hoping for peace and freedom.

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