In an event that tests both a man’s strength and his will, Phil Jack from Aberdeenshire battled fellow strong men from Orkney and Caithness and took the top prize and accompanying engraved glass trophy in this year’s John O’Groats Strongest Man competition.
The 4th annual competition took place at the beginning of November and saw three hours of classic strong man challenges such as Farmer’s Walk, Monster Dumbbell Press, Fingal’s Finger, Power Stairs, Apollon’s Axle Deadlift, and World’s Strongest Man Squat. One of the referees, Tom McGee, was impressed with the event:
“It was a fantastic event with several athletes hitting their personal bests.”
Jack beat out his competitors, pushing Calum Elder to his limit and into second place, and taking home £1000 as well as the John O’Groats’ Strongest Man engraved glass trophy. The Best Newcomer trophy, which was a new trophy for 2022, was awarded to Jason Anderson, and donated and designed by Robbie Anderson. Jason also bagged £200 for coming third.
Referee of three of the events and previous winner Kevin Macgregor was taking the year off due to injury. He commented on the number of locals that showed up for the event to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support as well as John O’Groats Development Trust’s playpark project. In total, £101 and £100 was raised for the two causes respectively.
Kevin said he is planning to run the event again in 2023, hopefully a little earlier than November with the hope of no injuries this time.