World Strongest Man Finale Slated For This Weekend

This year, Gaborone will host the two-legged events, which include the qualifying round on May 20 to 23, 2017. The 30 strongest men in the world will gather to compete for just 10 places in the final.

Current champion Brian Shaw and Žydrūnas Savickas will battle it out and the winner will equal Mariusz Pudzianowski Poland with five WSM titles.

Minister Tshekedi Khama told the media recently that the amount of awareness they were able to create through this event has been unprecedented. “Our main interest on this event, which is a film for television, is to create awareness about the country.

“The choice of sites at which the various activities are held during this event is therefore very important as it forms the backdrop of the footage, which will later appear on television,” he said.

He said last year the event profiled Chobe and the Okavango but this year they decided to bring it to Gaborone not just because they want to show different locations, but also because it’s important that they keep growing travel into the city as well.

“Awareness on a country is very important and it forms a basis which is very important when selling packages to the various markets,” he highlighted.

Looking back, it’s been 40 years since Bruce Wilhelm took the first World’s Strongest Man title in 1977. But even after all these years the competition have gained more popularity.

All eyes will be on Shaw who is the winner of the 2011, 2013, 2015 and the 2016 World’s Strongest Man competitions.

Shaw is the first man to have won the Arnold Strongman Classic and the World’s Strongest Man contest in the same calendar year, a feat he accomplished in 2011 and then replicated in 2015.

Botswana is slowly becoming a home for strongest men and now Gaborone will see who among the 10 finalists will pull the truck the furthest.

The first event is the load and drag, log lift on May 20 at the Government Enclave followed by the Squad Lift, Fingal Fingers and Truck Pull the next day at Grand Palm.

On May 22 there will be Deadlift, Basque Stone Lift at Bahurutshe Cultural Centre followed by the Toss, Elephant Carry and Last Man Standing event at UB Stadium.

The Three Dikgosi Monument at CBD will host the Flip and Drag, Squad Lift, Viking Press on May 27. The final event on May 28 will be the Plane Pull, Deadlift for Max and Atlas Stones at SSKI Airport and Parliament Building.

The public is invited to attend activities for free.

The event was held  in Kasane for the first time last year.