Uk Champion Of Steel Contest

[David Horne]

Mark Vogels has arrived from Holland.

[acorn]

Good luck everyone! Have fun and bend some serious steel!

- Aaron

[Too Tall]

Good luck to everyone

[egg_uk]

good luck everyone

[twig]

Welcome to the UK, Mark. Hope the flight went well.

Good luck tomorrow, to you and everyone else.

[David Horne]

I'll just get the overall results up quickly before I go out again.

Firstly a great set of competitors you couldn't have met, in what was a very tough contest. Also some amazing bends and snaps - full results later.

Final results

1st Dave Johnson (Stafford) 57pts

2nd Mark Vogels (Holland) 47pts

3rd Jim Wylie (Stafford) 41.5pts

4th Stewart Killick (Yateley) 33.5pts

5th Graeme Cunningham (Knutsford) 26.5pts

6th Elizabeth Horne (Stafford) 25pts

7th Alexander Horne (Stafford) 24.5pts

8th Wayne Lockwood (London) 8pts

Congratulations to everyone!

David

Edited September 8, 2007 by davidhorne

[jimwylie1]

It was a good competition - very hard, but good. Competing wasn't really that sensible and I'm paying the price now as the knuckle of my middle finger is now twice it's normal size!

I was really pleased to see Dave J win as he's a good friend and he deserved the victory. It was very close between him and Mark tho, it made for a really great comp.

Thanks for putting on the competition Dave. I know what it takes a lot of hard work to orgainse these things and keep it running on the day. First class, as usual.

On a personal note I would have loved to see Gazza down here with us, but I understand why he couldn't make it. Maybe next time...

[Cunny]

Great Day hard work.

Amazing unbraced snapping by Alex Horne and Dave Johnson

[egg_uk]

congrats to everyone

[Alawadhi]

Well done guys

[dimmers]

Well done everyone!!!

[moser1972]

Congrats to everyone - very well done!

Mark

Looks like a great comp David, again!

[The Mac]

Good stuff, look forward to seeing the full results.

Well done to all who competed.

[Booyah!!!]

Congrats everyone!!! It must have been very exciting!!!!

[gazza]

well done to everyone.

[David Horne]

UK Champion of Steel contest

Saturday 8 September, 2007

Venue: The Memorial Hall, Main Road, Great Haywood

Overall results

1st Dave Johnson (Stafford) 57pts

2nd Mark Vogels (Holland) 47pts

3rd Jim Wylie (Stafford) 41.5pts

4th Stewart Killick (Yateley) 33.5pts

5th Graeme Cunningham (Knutsford) 26.5pts

6th Elizabeth Horne (Stafford) 25pts

7th Alexander Horne (Stafford) 24.5pts

8th Wayne Lockwood (London) 8pts

Event 1 - Double Overhand bending in 5 mins - (unbraced)

1. Mark Vogels 8mm crs bar x 5.5” - 8pts

2. Dave Johnson 8mm crs bar x 6” - 7pts

3. Graeme Cunningham Gr 5 bolt x 5.5” - 6pts

4. Alex Horne Gr 5 bolt x 6” - 4.5pts

4. Elizabeth Horne Gr 5 bolt x 6” - 4.5pts

6. Stewart Killick 6” nail cut to 5” – 3pts

7. Jim Wylie 6” nail – 1.5pts

7. Wayne Lockwood 6” nail – 1.5pts

The 8mm crs bars are harder than the new tough batch of bars from FBBC, so as you can see a 5.5” bend was extremely good. The Grade 5 bolts were triangle head brand. Elizabeth Horne bent her bolt in 1 min 40 secs, and is still the only lady in the world to be able to bend these.

Event 2 - Long bar bending (48-24 inches) – (braced)

1. Stewart Killick 48” x ¾” hrs bar – 8pts

2. Dave Johnson 30” x 5/8” hrs bar – 6pts

2. Mark Vogels 30” x 5/8” hrs bar – 6pts

2. Jim Wylie 30” x 5/8” hrs bar – 6pts

5. Graeme Cunningham 34” x 5/8” hrs bar – 4pts

6. Elizabeth Horne 38” x 5/8” hrs bar – 2pts

6. Alex Horne 38” x 5/8” hrs bar – 2pts

6. Wayne Lockwood 38” x 5/8” hrs bar – 2pts

Big Stewart Killick demolished the ¾” bar (which looks like a short barbell), and after Mark and Dave failed with this bar he rested himself for the next event. He’s strong enough to take a few more inches off this length of bar. These bars were hot rolled steel.

Event 3 - Reverse bending in 30 secs - (unbraced)

1. Jim Wylie Gr 5 bolt x 5.5” - 8pts

2. Dave Johnson Gr 5 bolt x 6” - 6.5pts

2. Mark Vogels Gr 5 bolt x 6” - 6.5pts

4. Alex Horne 6” nail cut to 3.75” – 4.5pts

4. Graeme Cunningham 6” nail cut to 3.75” – 4.5pts

6. Elizabeth Horne 6” nail cut to 4” – 2.5pts

6. Stewart Killick 6” nail cut to 4” – 2.5pts

8. Wayne Lockwood 6” nail cut to 5” – 1pt

Jim Wylie came through to win this event with his great wrist strength, and below the top 3 was a battle to see who could do the shortest 6” nail! The Grade 5 bolts were triangle head brand.

Event 4 - Long bar bending (23-8 inches) – (braced)

1. Mark Vogels 14” x 1/2” hrs bar – 7.5pts

1. Dave Johnson 14” x 1/2” hrs bar – 7.5pts

3. Jim Wylie 15” x 1/2” hrs bar – 6pts

4. Stewart Killick 16” x 1/2” hrs bar – 5pts

5. Elizabeth Horne 18” x 1/2” hrs bar – 3pts

5. Graeme Cunningham 18” x 1/2” hrs bar – 3pts

5. Alex Horne 18” x 1/2” hrs bar – 3pts

8. Wayne Lockwood 20” x 1/2” hrs bar – 1pt

This was a great event to watch, with a myriad of styles being employed! Both Mark and Elizabeth declined their last attempt, but maybe Mark had another bar in him, but thought he’d save energy for later. These bars were hot rolled steel.

Event 5 - Double Underhand bending in 30 secs - (unbraced)

1. Stewart Killick Gr 5 bolt x 5” - 8pts

2. Mark Vogels Gr 5 bolt x 5.5” - 7pts

3. Dave Johnson Gr 5 bolt x 6” - 6pts

4. Graeme Cunningham 6” nail cut to 3.75” – 5pts

5. Elizabeth Horne 6” nail cut to 4” – 4pts

6. Jim Wylie 6” nail cut to 5” – 3pts

7. Alex Horne 6” nail cut to 5.5” – 2pts

8. Wayne Lockwood 6” nail – 1pt

Strongman Stewart Killick came through for his second event win, which is a great start since this was his first time in this kind of contest. At this time Mark was still just leading over Dave by 2 pts. The Grade 5 bolts were triangle head brand.

Event 6 - Speed Bending - (braced) - Bend as many 30" long x 5/8" HRS bars in 1 min to 90 degrees angle or above.

1. Dave Johnson 3 bars – 8pts

2. Stewart Killick 1 bar – 7pts

3. Mark Vogels – 6pts

4. Jim Wylie – 5pts

5. Graeme Cunningham – 4pts

6. Elizabeth Horne – 3pts

7. Alex Horne – 1.5pts

7. Wayne Lockwood 1.5pts

For those who couldn’t get a full 90 degree bend on their bar, positions were worked out on how far they bent it. Dave and Mark were now level on 41 pts. This was a hard event, but it was only going to get harder!

Event 7 - Unbraced snapping of a 6” Nail in 10 mins

1. Dave Johnson 14 secs – 8pts

2. Alex Horne 27 secs – 7pts

3. Mark Vogels 2 min 6 secs – 6pts

4. Jim Wylie 9 min 25 secs – 5pts

5. Stewart Killick – 0pts

5. Graeme Cunningham – 0pts

5. Elizabeth Horne – 0pts

5. Wayne Lockwood – 0pts

15 year old Alex set an incredible time of 27 secs, which we thought wouldn’t be toppled till Dave did 14 secs, which is the fastest I’ve ever seen or heard of in this style, with this kind of nail. Stewart and Jim were left on the stage, and with much encouragement from the crowd Jim snapped his in the time, and poor Stewart was left in a pool of sweat. But fantastic effort from him!

Event 8 - Braced snapping of a 12” x 8mm hrs bar in 10 mins

1. Dave Johnson 2 min 30 secs – 8pts

2. Jim Wylie 6 min – 7pts

3. Elizabeth Horne 7 min 32 secs – 6pts

4. Stewart Killick – 0pts

4. Graeme Cunningham – 0pts

4. Alex Horne – 0pts

4. Mark Vogels – 0pts

4. Wayne Lockwood – 0pts

This final event was nasty after everything so far and only 3 could finish it. Dave Johnson blistered through to take the event and the well deserved title. Elizabeth’s bending prowess and her conditioning is awesome and she never stopped as she powered through to snap the bar. Stewart, Graeme and Alex were all in a lot of pain, and were glad when the time was up!

The contest took just over 5 hrs, and was very interesting to watch. Four competitors were on the stage for each round, and I think this added to the excitement. There was some amazing bends and snaps, and all the athletes were great sportsmen/women. I enjoyed meeting faces old and faces new, and here’s to 2011 for the next Champion of Steel – so get training!

[egg_uk]

sounds like a great day, nice write up

[bencrush]

Awesome writeup and great job to all the competitors! Plenty of time to train for 2011 then.

[David Horne]

Yes plenty of time.

Be great to see you at it.

David

[antarath]

Very nice!! Impressive results on all. Is there any photos from this ? Would love to see some

Mats

Edited September 9, 2007 by Mats Erik

[FrankyBoy]

Well done everyone!

Congrats to Dave for the win!

[vikingsrule92]

Congrats to everyone!!!!! Sounds like it was a great competition.

[egg_uk]

mark, sounds like you really enjoyed the experience, and put in a great performance. congrats, and a great write up

[Stew]

Hi Guys,

First time posting on here and first time at steel bending yesterday.

I really enjoyed this, very different to my normal strongman training but now something I will keep up for sure.

Thanks to David and all the other competitors for all the help and advise without which I wouldn't have bent anything.

Both Mark and Dave were exceptional and very consistant at all the events, Jim took a well deserved 3rd beating me on the final 2 events where I could not manage to snap either the nail or the bar (he did both).

Dave's snapping has to be seen to be believed, obviously I dont know much about this but there cant be many people snapping 6" nails in under 20 seconds.

Thanks to Graeme for the red nail, I am going to get in some practice then give it a go double underhand as I wont have a chance any other way.

I am going to put in a lot of work on the events I was bad at and especially work on the flexibility to get the bar up high enough for the double overhand, I will also try to increase what I did on the long bar and double underhand which come a bit more naturally to me and hopefully in the future I may achieve some bends worthy of a mention on this board, if I work out how to use youtube I may even get to post a video.

Mark, very nice to meet you, I hope I get to compete with you again and I will make sure Cath gets those pics to you asap.

Hands are black,blue and swollen but I really enjoyed myself.

Cheers Guys

Stew

Edited September 9, 2007 by Stew

[wscorpion]

Hi Guys,

First time posting on here and first time at steel bending yesterday.

I really enjoyed this, very different to my normal strongman training but now something I will keep up for sure.

Thanks to David and all the other competitors for all the help and advise without which I wouldn't have bent anything.

Both Mark and Dave were exceptional and very consistant at all the events, Jim took a well deserved 3rd beating me on the final 2 events where I could not manage to snap either the nail or the bar (he did both).

Dave's snapping has to be seen to be believed, obviously I dont know much about this but there cant be many people snapping 6" nails in under 20 seconds.

Thanks to Graeme for the red nail, I am going to get in some practice then give it a go double underhand as I wont have a chance any other way.

I am going to put in a lot of work on the events I was bad at and especially work on the flexibility to get the bar up high enough for the double overhand, I will also try to increase what I did on the long bar and double underhand which come a bit more naturally to me and hopefully in the future I may achieve some bends worthy of a mention on this board, if I work out how to use youtube I may even get to post a video.

Mark, very nice to meet you, I hope I get to compete with you again and I will make sure Cath gets those pics to you asap.

Hands are black,blue and swollen but I really enjoyed myself.

Cheers Guys

Stew

It was great meeting you too Stew, you did a great job there!!!

My girlfriend is already adding Cath as a friend on that site, so hopefully we'll be able to see the pics soon

I've got approx. 2 hours of video so uploading it on youtube won't be an option due to it's 10 min time restriction, but I'll find another way to distribute it....

You should really work on the reverse and double overhand bending, the DU bending already is very strong, a G5 at 5" definitely is a bend worth mentioning for the GB!!

I just tried to bend a weak bolt which I can easily bend in DU and Reverse as well normally, but I could hardly bend it DO now, I'm really sore too so I know how you feel

Too bad it takes another 4 years for this contest but I'm sure in 4 years time even greater steel will fall!