The 2023 Giants Live Strongman Classic took place on July 8th 2023 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England. It was undoubtedly one of the biggest competitions of the year, featuring two WSM champions and nine more elite Strongman athletes. Lasting only one day, the Strongman Classic consisted of five events, after which Evan Singleton was crowned as the champion.
Evan Singleton was consistently good throughout the entire competition, but he secured the title in the final moments of the competition. He finished in the top three across all five events, while his rivals had at least one event in which they dropped a significant amount of points. So, Evan only jumped to first place on the final event, the Atlas Stones.
Tom Stoltman finished in second place, just 0.5 points behind Evan Singleton. Although the victory was almost his, he fell short and took home the silver medal.
The man who spent the most time in the lead, Mitchell Hooper, dropped down to third-place after a relatively bad performance on the Atlas Stones. It seemed like it would be smooth sailing for Hooper after three events, but the momentum quickly shifted on the final two events.
Gavin Bilton was also supposed to be competing as a replacement for Pavlo Nakonechnyy, but he could not make it to the competition because of an unspecified family emergency.
2023 Giants Live Strongman Classic Lineup
- Evan Singleton (USA) — 47 points
- Tom Stoltman (Scotland) — 46.5 points
- Mitchell Hooper (Canada) — 43 points
- Trey Mitchell (USA) — 33.5 points
- Eddie Williams (Australia) — 32 points
- Luke Stoltman (Scotland) — 28 points
- Spenser Remick (USA) — 27 points
- Pavlo Kordiyaka (Ukraine) — 22.5 points
- Kevin Faires (USA) — 22 points
- Cheick “Iron Biby” Sanou (Burkina Faso) — 19 points
- Rongo Keene (Australia) — 5.5 points
Related: 2023 UK’s Strongest Woman & Man Results — Rebecca Roberts & Paul Smith Take Gold
Event One — Nicol Stone Carry
The Nicol Stones are one of the legendary events in Strongman, as the athletes have to carry one in each hand for the maximum distance possible. The heavier stone weighs 138 kilograms (304 pounds), while the lighter stone weighs 114 kilograms (251 pounds). However, the handles for each stone are just simple metal rings which cause a lot of pain for anyone performing the event.
We got to see Eddie Williams set a Nicol Stone Carry World Record in the first event of the 2023 Giants Live Strongman Classic, as four men beat the previous mark of 24 meters set by Kevin Faires at the 2023 Giants Live World Tour Finals. However, out of the four that outperformed the record, Eddie Williams of Australia carried it the furthest, dropping the stones at a length of 31.66 meters.
- Eddie Williams — 31.66 m
- Mitchell Hooper — 26.66 m
- Evan Singleton — 25.25 m
- Kevin Faires — 24.82 m
- Tom Stoltman — 20.87 m
- Luke Stoltman — 19.53 m
- Cheick “Iron Biby” Sanou — 17.34 m
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — 16.14 m
- Rongo Keene — 12.5 m
- Spenser Remick — 6.95 m
- Trey Mitchell — 5.73 m
Event Two — Super Yoke
The second event of the 2023 Giants Live Strongman Classic was the Super Yoke, which weighed 1,000 pounds (453.6 kilograms). This implement was carried for a distance of 20 meters, with the athletes racing to get the quickest time.
The 2023 WSM, Mitchell Hooper, did not let anyone get close to him in the Super Yoke event, as he was the only man to break the 10-second barrier. The next quickest man was Evan Singleton, who finished 2.35 seconds behind Hooper. Tom Stoltman finished in third with a time of 12.21 seconds
- Mitchell Hooper — 9.84 s
- Evan Singleton — 12.19 s
- Tom Stoltman — 12.21 s
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — 13.42 s
- Spenser Remick — 14.45 s
- Luke Stoltman — 14.87 s
- Eddie Williams — 15.36 s
- Trey Mitchell — 17.47 s
- Cheick “Iron Biby” Sanou — 20.11 s
- Kevin Faires — 20.16 s
- Rongo Keene — 31.20 s
Event Three — Deadlift
The third event of the 2023 Giants Live Strongman Classic featured a Deadlift for reps event. While there were many options, the organizers opted to use an axle barbell and load it with 360 kilograms (793.7 pounds). Then, the athletes had to perform as many reps as possible.
Mitchell “The Moose” Hooper claimed his second event win of the day and set up a decent foundation for himself going into the final two events. He was the only man to perform seven repetitions, which earned him the max 11 points possible.
Finishing behind Hooper was the 2021 & 2022 WSM, Tom Stoltman with six reps. The third place was then shared by two US representatives, Trey Mitchell, and Evan Singleton, as they both locked out five reps.
Rongo Keene had to pull out from the competition after the deadlift event, with his doctors determining that it was best for him to withdraw since he was suffering from illness.
- Mitchell Hooper — 7 reps
- Tom Stoltman — 6 reps
- Evan Singleton — 5 reps
- Trey Mitchell — 5 reps
- Eddie Williams — 3 reps
- Luke Stoltman — 3 reps
- Kevin Faires — 3 reps
- Spenser Remick — 2 reps
- Cheick “Iron Biby” Sanou — 2 reps
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — 1 rep
- Rongo Keene — 1 rep
Event Four — Viking Press
The penultimate event of the competition was the Viking Press, a well known piece of equipment in Strongman made to perform a standing shoulder press. The weight of the Viking Press was 150 kilograms (330.7 pounds), with the goal being to perform as many reps as possible.
Trey Mitchell walked out onto the stage and performed 18 repetitions on the Viking Press for a new World Record.
This event also saw Evan Singleton and Tom Stoltman tie for second with 17 reps each. This was extremely important for both, as they narrowed the distance in points between them and Mitchell Hooper who got 3.5 points less than them.
Iron Biby withdrew after this event for unknown reasons, but he was seen limping away after the Viking Press.
- Trey Mitchell — 18 reps
- Tom Stoltman — 17 reps
- Evan Singleton — 17 reps
- Spenser Remick — 15 reps
- Cheick “Iron Biby” Sanou — 15 reps
- Mitchell Hooper — 14 reps
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — 13 reps
- Luke Stoltman — 11 reps
- Kevin Faires — 9 reps
- Eddie Williams — 7 reps
Event Five — Castle Stones
The final event in the 2023 Giants Live Strongman Classic was the Castle Stones. The athletes were tasked with lifting and placing five progressively heavier stones on their platforms, ranging from 120 kilograms (264.5 pounds) to 200 kilograms (440 pounds).
Although heat and humidity made the Castle Stones event much harder for everyone, Tom Stoltman still put up a mind-blowing time of 20.29 seconds for all five stones. This secured him the maximum points and made him jump from third to second place overall.
Evan Singleton was the most surprising athlete on the Castle Stones, as he was the only other man apart from Tom to complete all five. This put him in first place overall, as he finished with 0.5 points more than Tom overall.
Mitchell Hooper only got three stones, failing to grip the fourth stone. This might be due to multiple reasons, but it looked like his tacky (glue placed on forearms) got less effective due to the heat in the arena.
- Tom Stoltman — 5 in 20.29 s
- Evan Singleton — 5 in 25.18 s
- Trey Mitchell — 4 in 22.21 s
- Eddie Williams — 4 in 25.75 s
- Spenser Remick — 4 in 27.47 s
- Luke Stoltman — 3 in 12.80 s
- Mitchell Hooper — 3 in 16.19 s
- Pavlo Kordiyaka — 3 in 23.07 s
- Kevin Faires — 1 in 25.40 s
Evan Singleton has been excelling as a Strongman this year, having competed twice and put up incredible performances both times. Back in April, Evan made it to the WSM Finals for the first time ever and placed fifth overall. Now, he added another International victory to his resume, making it his fourth overall. He has finally reached his peak shape after years of falling just short. So, hopefully he will ride the momentum and continue contending for the biggest titles in the sport.