The Log Lift World Championships are a week away, and we are seeing a lot of the athletes hitting their last heavy sets. There has been a lot of talk on who will break the world record, and with a big cash bonus for whoever does, the athletes are giving it their all. Let’s look at who is most likely to hit some big log presses, and possibly break the world record.
The first thing to keep in mind is that the weight jumps are set, which means there will be a lot of ties as the athletes can not simply jump 1 or 2 more kg for better placing. The weight jumps will be 175, 190, 200, 213, 220, 230 KG.
Vytautas Lalas
Lalas may be the most underestimated athlete in the log lift world championships. He has lifted over 200kg in the past, but with little to no training videos of recent posted, it is all speculation on what kind of shape he is in.
Rob Kearney
Won the SCL Log Lift World Championships in the past, and looks stronger than ever posting a 214kg/471lb Jerk in training. Kearney is the only contender that utilizes a split jerk, and it may work to his advantage as if he can find the right balance with the wooden log, we could see something massive. Kearney will be looking to break the American record of 211kg and is likely to do so. 220kg is very possible, and on a perfect day perhaps maybe even 230kg.
Iron Bibby
Iron Bibby is such a wild card. Obviously massively strong and a huge human, he has tremendous potential but is he ready to come into his own yet? There is also been a lot of speculation on how accurate the weights listed in training are. This reported 200kg lift looks like a warm up but he also doesn’t get his head through on the reps. We will see in a few days if the hype is real, a 200kg log is going to happen 213 is also likely but 220 might be a bit out of reach at this point I believe.
Robert Oberst
Robert Oberst holds the current American log press record of 211kg/465lbs. Oberst takes great pride in this lift and will not let it go without a fight. Many have counted him out due to his recent weight loss and leaning out, but he posted a video pressing what appears to be a 215kg log and looks a bit bigger than he was a few months ago. Oberst is also one of the few athletes to have ever even attempted 500+ on the log in competition, so you know he is not worried about going for that kind of weight.
Graham Hicks
Judging by popular opinion, it seems people are not aware that Hicks holds the British log record at 212kg. This currently puts him third all time on the log press record board. Hicks looks set to break his own record and should not be underestimated. Here he is pressing 200kg extremely easily on the contest log.
and a 220kg incline log
Along with a bit of ribbing of Robert Oberst as Hicks says, he is going for the hat trick going head to head.
Krzystof Radzikowski
Radzikowski also known as “Mr Triceps” holds the second highest log press in history at 217.5kg/479.5lbs, so should be considered a front runner. The question is, how healthy is he and can he clean it, as that is always the issue with Radzikowski in contest as the weight gets heavy. He did post a pretty easy looking 215kg log in training so he looks in top form.
Eddie Hall
Eddie Hall is probably the most static strong athlete competing, but the log is a very dynamic lift. He has also been plagued by some injuries including a hip injury and a badly injured ankle which could cause him issues in stabilizing the weight. Similar to the last log lift world championships where he lost balance with 220kg and dropped it on his head. If Hall can stay stable and put the injuries aside, surely he has the strength to get 230kg. In training he has hit 216 which may be the biggest training lift by anyone leading up to the contest
Will Eddies injuries prevent a world record or will he do it anyways? That is the real question and as he has said when he says he is going to do something when has not done it?
Zydrunas Savickas
The king of the log, he has held the record for so long it is hard to even imagine a world where Big Z does not hold the world record. After over-coming some serious injuries, Savickas looks bigger and stronger than he has been in years. By not posting his training weights, he has possibly caused more hype for the event than anyone else with group threads reaching hundreds of comments trying to figure out what weights Z has hit. None have been officially reported, but his last set is likely somewhere in the range of 212-225kg a big range but we will just have to wait and see. All I have to say is if there is a log press and you do not put your money on Big Z, you are truly taking a gamble.
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