Jouko dominates the first GP competition 

For those who can't yet even pronounce 'Jouko' properly, it goes like Yo! and co as in congratulations Jokke, which is what his friends call him. 

"Ladies and gentlemen: We have a new winner!" 

I arrived at the competition scene at half past four, when the competition started 6pm. So I had plenty of time to check out the stands at the fitness fair, which was held the same time. 

My friends, who came with me, made jokes about the place, Hartwall Arena, the biggest ice hockey stadium in Finland (ca. 13 700 seats): They had never been there before, and first from outside the stadium, they could only see the hamburger restaurant Carrols' signs, so they "wondered": wow, a huge hamburger restaurant, but where's the stadium?. They also made fun about asking someone where will "the women's apparatus gymnastics competition" be held! 

At the fair we didn't see much famous people, one Finnish fitness-star (Marianne Kiukkonen), who looked like a toy-girl (in a negative way, someone said), but surprisingly many healthy-looking residents of our capital. Well, we were expecting to see at least this man. 

I tried a new type of cable row, one cable for each hand. Bad thing there weren't also two stacks of 150kg... But I didn't come for a workout so we began to search our seats. 

Well, I did see Manfred at the hallway, but he was more or less running and I don't have the mass to stop him. I also passed Markku Suonenvirta in the stairs and gave him a strong pat on the back when he was going down. Man he moves fast!

Svend Karlsen (Norway, 145kg, 188cm) 

Magnus Samuelsson (Sweden , 135kg, 201cm) 

Heinz Ollesch (Germany, 150kg, 190cm) 

Berend Veneberg (Holland, 135kg, 185cm) 

Regin Vagadal (Faroe Islands, 130kg, 186cm) 

Martin Muhr (Germany, 130kg, 192cm)

Riku Kiri (Finland, 145kg, 193cm) 
 

Like a cable row, but you have to lift a 200kg weight up four meters before you're finished. No locks, so if you loose your grip, the "paper weight" drops to the ground.

Kiri (Finland) 

Samuelsson (Sweden) 

Ahola (Finland) 

Ollesch (Germany) 

MVM (Iceland) 

Veneberg (Holland) 

Karlsen (Norway) 

Tuhkasaari (Finland) 

Vagadal (Faroe Islands) 

Muhr (Germany)

5,17s 

3,77s 

3,61s 

5,45s 

3,30s 

5,17s 

4,72s 

5,60s 

9,62s 

4,49s

#1 Kiri got to be the tester for this new event.  

#2 This event should have been very familiar to Jouko but nevertheless Magnus did beat him with a superior technique. Magnus did three long pulls, Jouko like "climbed". Svend nearly got it with two long pulls but had to take the third. 

#3 Magnus: "Usually I have a bad start and a good finish - now I got a good start. This worries me." He was also worried about the next event, crucifix, because his (left?) shoulder has seen better days. 

#4 Tuhkasaari used too short pulls and had to do one extra (four).  
Let me introduce him for you: A 21-y old strongman from Hämeenlinna, Jouko coaches him. He qualified here by winning some competition two weeks ago. 181cm, 115kg, far from being fat. Some would have wanted to see Hannu 'Osku' Osala instead, but this young man well earned his place later. 

#5 It soon became clear that the audience won't hear much comments, sound system sucked and most of the comments wen't for television cameras only. 

#6 Vagadal lost his grip once, but didn't quite drop it 

#7 After performing this task competitors started to warm up for crucifix. They looked like windmills. 

#8 But did they really even warm up for this event? ;-)

They had 17kg (1kg = 0,4536 lbs) TVs in each hand, their back was tied to a pole. Two men did this at the same time.

Kiri (Finland) 

Samuelsson (Sweden) 

Ahola (Finland) 

Ollesch (Germany) 

MVM (Iceland) 

Veneberg (Holland) 

Karlsen (Norway) 

Tuhkasaari (Finland) 

Vagadal (Faroe Islands) 

Muhr (Germany)

24,96s 

38,27s 

49,78s 

21,19s 

30,33s 

33,86s 

33,20s 

45,55s 

30,33s 

17,30s

#1 Kiri holds it high.. whaat? ..happened. Huh - today Kiri lacks both speed and endurance 

#2 So MTV3 and Eurosport get the interviews (televised in Finland the following saturday) 

#3 Thunderous voice booms "Keep it up Jokke!", but no-one hears him. Just the ear-breaking noise of 7300+ spectators yelling as loud as they can, clapping their hands and jumping. TODAY WE WILL WIN! Imagine the noise, when men who bench press about 200 kilos shout together! I still have my adrenaline levels up! 

Jouko gets always much support when and where-ever he competes. He is a well liked and a very talkative strongman of a new era. He's not fat, he's not slow and he has good athletic skills like Magnus. Jouko runs a 100m dash with a 100kg sack on his shoulders... in 19 seconds! 

Jouko and Magnus, though they might not be the strongest in every lift (usually they are that too), they are a couple who won't be beaten in a long while in these kind of competitions.  

#4 Jouko: 
"Two events behind, of cource I'm not tired. Still six to go..."  
"Tuhkasaari did well as I expected"

Kiri (Finland) 

Samuelsson (Sweden) 

Ahola (Finland) 

Ollesch (Germany) 

MVM (Iceland) 

Veneberg (Holland) 

Karlsen (Norway) 

Tuhkasaari (Finland) 

Vagadal (Faroe Islands) 

Muhr (Germany)

19,41s 

23,43s 

18,60s 

DNF -100s 

18,91s 

95s 

22,47s 

67s 

32,79s 

45,03s

#1 Jouko:"It's not the weight of the stones but you can't afford to make any mistakes. I expect the winner to use about 20 secs, others will come inside three seconds or so" 

#2 Manfred is taking pics for his new magazine. "Look at that fotographer - must be a heavy camera!!" 

#3 Competitors change shirts for every event 

#4 Ahola does not use very high heel shoes this time, maybe those would slow him down ;-) 

#5 Magnus came close but not close enough 

#6 Ollesch lost his grip

Kiri (Finland) 

Samuelsson (Sweden) 

Ahola (Finland) 

Ollesch (Germany) 

MVM (Iceland) 

Veneberg (Holland) 

Karlsen (Norway) 

Tuhkasaari (Finland) 

Vagadal (Faroe Islands) 

Muhr (Germany)

11,11s 

15,95s 

12,71s 

DNF, "40s" 

13,29s 

DNF, "20s" 

12,17s 

DNF, "25s" 

DNF, "35s" 

DNF, "30s"

#1 Ollesch: operated back can't take it yet, why even try? End of game 

#2 Kiri found his speed again! 

#3 Karlsen is improving all the time! 

#4 I was quite surprised that Magnus didn't win this one

Vagadal (Faroe Islands) 

Muhr (Germany) 

Tuhkasaari (Finland) 

Veneberg (Holland) 

Kiri (Finland) 

Karlsen (Norway) 

MVM (Iceland) 

Samuelsson (Sweden) 

Ahola (Finland)

47,45s 

38,43s 

35,74s 

46,03s 

32,10s 

28,83s 

28,98s 

33,15s 

31,17s

#1 After winning this event Svend did some bodybuilding poses and even sang ELVIS! He deserved and got loud applauds. This sport certainly needs and usually has had showmen. He was sure about winning it before it even started... 

"Well I used to be a bank robber in my former life so I'm gonna carry those sacks very fast!"  

#2 Nearly everyone adjusted and picked up the sacks before the judge blowed his whistle (Judges: Manfred, Reeves, Kinnunen) 

#3 Kiri injured his hamstring and quit. He was doing better all the time but then it ended like this.  

"I'm out, it's hamstring problem" However, we will see him in the next GP! 

#4 Like Kiri is quite a silent man (though he is a man of aphorisms), the crowd always used to wait for a few seconds before they started to clap. Like they were frightened and just silently watched who is this man and what will he do. Many people made their bets for him.

Vagadal (Faroe Islands) 

Muhr (Germany) 

Tuhkasaari (Finland) 

Veneberg (Holland) 

Karlsen (Norway) 

Samuelsson (Sweden) 

MVM (Iceland) 

Ahola (Finland)

405, "550" 

70, "400" 

700, "700" 

got it up,"350" 

460, "600" 

270, "450" 

405, "500" 

680, "650"

#1 Ahola lost by only 24 cm, started to laugh after he dropped it. He told that it was not the first time Tuhkasaari won him in this event. 

#2 Tuhkasaari :"This has always been a good event for me" 

and later when asked if he feels tired: 

"This thing is starting to wear me down" (well actually he used 'die down') and then a strong voice from the audience:"NO IT'S NOT!" ;-) 

#3 Samuelsson and Karlsen made comments about the box waving and the event being harder for tall men 

#4 Hey, they fixed the sound reproducing during the half-time (30min) 

#5 Btw this competition was going fast, the whole thing took only 4 hours! Those who weren't used to this kind of competitions had serious problems already! 

#6 Veneberg injured his chest and dropped out (but he nearly just got it up..) He said it felt sore even before and he had tried to massage it 

#7 Vagadal: "couldn't breath" 

#8 Muhr: "disbalance" 

#9 Nice peace of sugar, 260kg

Vagadal (Faroe Islands) 

Muhr (Germany) 

Tuhkasaari (Finland) 

Karlsen (Norway) 

Samuelsson (Sweden) 

MVM (Iceland) 

Ahola (Finland)

42,81 

52,65 

45,04 

63,45 

60,00 

64,91 

67,28

#1 At first I didn't hear the weight but after two competitiors I guessed it right... 

#2 Kiri was walking around, hmm... good thing it was not worse 

#3 Ahola doesn't seem to know the meaning of active recovery?! Or could it be that his muscles don't gather lactic acid at all! During these events he spent some time just laying on the floor. 

#4 The crowd nearly carried Ahola those required extra two meters. Actually it seemed it was not even hard for him (but on TV it looked harder :-). After this event his lead was as high as 10 points! He had won already!

Vagadal (Faroe Islands) 

Muhr (Germany) 

Tuhkasaari (Finland) 

Karlsen (Norway) 

Samuelsson (Sweden) 

MVM (Iceland) 

Ahola (Finland)

49,76s 

28,94s 

48,07s 

33,00 

nearly got it, "60" 

30,16 

28,49

#1 Samuelsson collapsed after his attempt to lift the last weight up the last step. He went laying down for 5 minutes or so. Even after that he could barely walk! 

#2 MVM tried to recover longer than it was legal and got a yellow card (who cares). Clearly he was tired too.  

#3 Ahola was not nearly as tired. Do you people realize Jouko also coached Tuhkasaari all along and even helped his belt on!  

#4 It was harder for Karlsen to come down the stairs than to get those weights up ;-) 

#5 Competitors changed shirt for every event and in the last shirt there were all sponsors together ...

Ahola instead showed a six-pack. Only hint that this was not a beauty competition were his 'carb-swollen' cheeks.

Magnus when asked about Tuhkasaari: