By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – United States Strongman qualifying competition was held Aug. 10 at Hewitt’s Meats in Marshfield.

Athletes from all over the Midwest were invited to earn a spot in U.S. Strongman Nationals 2020, during the event.

This was the first year for event organizer Kyle Boost.

“I’ve never ran one. I’ve been competing in Strongman powerlifting for about 15 years,” Boost said.

The competition featured events, such as: the log press, last man standing, a truck pull, a deadlift medley, and a farmer’s walk.

Boost said that he took an average lifting weights from area competitions to determine classes for the qualifying event.

“The women went from 100 pounds to 250 pounds, and the guys are going from 200 pounds to 450 pounds,” he said. “The deadlifts are ranging anywhere from 450 pounds for lightweights to 750 pounds for the heavyweights.

“There are a lot of competitions that have weights low enough that everybody can do them, so there are huge turnouts. We want to bring something that would be a little heavier that would bring more athletes that are more serious about it in, so we picked a little bit of the weights higher.”

The competition featured less than 20 participants, with the top three receiving invites to nationals held in Minneapolis, MN.

“Usually you have to drive halfway across the country to go to it, so we were hoping to bring in a lot more athletes from around here,” Boost added. “A guy is here from Indiana, because this is the closest show he could find.  That is really the kicker on that – is that the people that want to go to nationals, they have to qualify in an event.”

Proceeds from the Aug. 10 competition go to the United Way NOW program. Hewitt’s Meats also donated food sales on the day of the event.

“It was really about giving back to somebody…and it is giving back to the competitors too,” Boost explained. “Next year, it is going to be twice as big as this and twice as many things to give away.”