If you were a hardcore fan of strongman in the mid-2000s, you probably heard about the
World Strongman Cup (WSMC) Federation. Although its existence was brief (founded in 2004, it folded and was replaced by the
World Strongman Federation at the end of 2007), WSMC aired on television in many countries and it attracted athletes such as
Mariusz Pudzianowski,
Vasyl Virastyuk,
Terry Hollands and
Janne Virtanen.
Entering the 2007 strongman season, WSMC had held competitions in 13 countries and had plans to explore one more. Its first contest of 2007, scheduled for March 15-16, would be held on Kish Island, 19 km southwest of mainland Iran. This would be a historic contest in many ways: it would be the first international strongman competition to take place in Iran. A few years prior, in 2002, IFSA had tried to set up an international Grand Prix on Kish Island, but the project fell through.
This time, though, the contest would happen. WSMC had made arrangements with local promoters, and it was bringing over some of the best strongmen in the world at the time, including 4 World’s Strongest Man finalists from the previous year: Pudzianowski,
Mark Felix,
Tarmo Mitt and
Raivis Vidzis all made the trip to Iran. In fact, it would be a whopping lineup of 21 athletes who would face a total of 8 events.
Excluding the 3 Iranian athletes, the men travelled some long distances to get to the competition, many of them having to pay for their flight before getting a refund along with their prize money at the end of the show. Still, the competitors were greeted by some beautiful sights. After all, Kish Island is one of the most sought-after travel destinations in the Middle East.
The strongmen arrived in Iran on Tuesday, March 13, two days before the start of the competition. This would give them some time to test the equipment and adjust to the jet lag before the Truck Pull, on Thursday morning.
No Money, No Equipment
Some questions began to be raised by the competitors as, on the eve of the beginning of the contest, there was no equipment. The following day… still no equipment, which meant that the WSMC competition would be pushed back to March 16-17. Concerns grew among the athletes. "Nobody told us anything,"
Arild Haugen recounted to
IronMind a few days later.
On Friday, March 16, the implements finally arrived. However, the strongmen were getting increasingly worried about the money promised to them, and they decided that they would only do 2 events before stopping if the money didn’t materialize.
One Lift Too Many
The opening event was the Truck Pull. As usual for WSMC competitions, it was quite light and the athletes all finished the course in under 33 seconds. Mariusz Pudzianowski took the early lead with a time of 21.23, but Tarmo Mitt just edged him out by finishing in 21.12 seconds.
Dominic Filiou nearly stole the win, but he settled for second place, 0.07 seconds behind Mitt.
Ralf Ber and
Rene Minkwitz also finished in under 22 seconds, while a young Mark Felix (only 40 years old at the time) was classified 11th.
Afterwards, the 21 athletes took on the Log Lift: 130 kg for reps in 75 seconds. Sadly, the results for this event did not survive the test of time, and
Strongman Archives was not able to find the scores. However, we do know what happened next…
The Iranian fans were quite enthusiastic about the strongman competition, and they were excited to meet the international athletes for the first time. After the Log Lift, two young Iranian women approached Arild Haugen and asked for a photo with him. The 21-year-old Norwegian happily obliged, lifting the women up for a photo. Unfortunately, such interactions are not tolerated in Iran. "The police grabbed the girls and put them straight in jail", Haugen told
IronMind.
The contest was stopped by the police - even before the athletes had had time to put an end to it themselves - and the Iranian promoter was taken to jail along with the two women. He would be released a day later.
Haugen, meanwhile, had to write an apology for the police and was told to sign it "Arild Stupid Haugen", in order to avoid being arrested (!). The competitors and WSMC officials quickly left Iran and the federation’s following contest, in Dubai, was cancelled.
WSMC’s season finally officially started in Latvia, on May 13. Before the competition, WSCF Manager Vlad Redkin told
IronMind that "the Iranian stage was a little mistake; all normal men understand this."
However, the two events on Kish Island left their mark on the athletes. Back then, a competitor recalled Iranians telling athletes: "Please tell the world we need help."
Arild Haugen never competed with the WSMC federation again, but the other strongmen were undeterred: 14 of them entered at least one other WSMC contest before it became the World Strongman Federation, later in 2007.