The Rhinos & Geoff Capes Strongman 2019
What was a quite simply an awesome day, with a total of 40 absolutely top class competitors from all over the UK taking part in the first ever Rhinos Open competition.
Following registration the event started bang on time at 10am.
Five gruelling events followed, consisting of a head to head car lift (bar lift for the ladies), Yoke and Farmers, log press.
Then followed a charity truck pull with 10 ladies pulling a 7.5 tonne artic truck in aid of the 'Sunshine Campaign'
The athletes then continued with the men pulling the artic and the ladies pulling the Rhino's Mitsubishi L200 truck.
With all categories tightly contested and with very few points separating the top athletes , the weights certainly challenged the most experienced athletes and with the final event of atlas stone over yoke proved to be a great finisher.
The whole day was a great spectacle, spread over the entire length and breadth of Rhinos carpark some 80 metres in length. With the events finishing at 5pm proceedings moved from the main carpark to the podium at the front of the gym, where the athletes received medals and fantastic trophies from the legendary Geoff Capes.
It was great to see a mix of first time competitors, novices, intermediates and experienced opens and both ladies as well as gents.
There were a lot of stand out performances, plenty of personal bests smashed and a few demons put to bed and also some great prospects for the future and in true strongman style great encouragement, banter and camaraderie all round.
In true Rhino's fashion the planning and organising paid off with an event that ran without a hitch.
A special mention to all the contributors and helpers to the event :-
Hindmarch Peugeot for providing two brand new 208's, Treasure Transport for providing a brand new Scania, Wes Vellam for a superb job on the scoreboard, Steve Mount, Ben Evans, Robert Arnold, Pete Wilson, Craig Brothwell, David Roberts, Carl Oxford for various tasks from time keeping, scoring and the onerous task of resetting kits, you grafted well lads particularly on the yoke and farmers.
Thanks also to Ian de Silva for photographing the event (more details to follow) and of course to Geoff for being head judge.
But the biggest thank you must go to the athletes for travelling far and wide, plus local lads and lasses contributing to a great day, for entering into it with great spirit.
The day was made even better by bright sunshine for the most part.
A final heartfelt thank you from Nick & Sam , we hope the day lived upto your expectations and you enjoyed it.
We hope you all had a safe journey home and see you next year.
Thanks Rhino’s