Canada is the true north strong and free, and for the past five years Regina’s Canada Day celebration has put an emphasis on the strong with Western Canada’s Strongest Man competition.
The event is marking its 15th year, and while previously calling Vancouver and Winnipeg home, this year Queen City gets to play host.
“We absolutely love it. It is a fringe sport, and it doesn’t have mainstream popularity, but when people see it they want to stay and watch it,” Brad Provick, a competitor plus competition promoter, explained.
Twelve behemoths from Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, and Regina competed in six events including the 20,000 pound truck pull, keg toss, and atlas stones.
Regina’s Scott Cummine marked his return to the competition after suffering injuries to his hamstring, knee, and bicep. The injuries forced the seven-time champion to miss last year’s event.
“It’s a tough thing to find motivation being injured, because you’re out and it would be real easy to just stop,” he said.
Cummine fought back after a lengthy rehab process and added an 8th Western Canadian Strongest Man title to his trophy case.
Provack placed second overall, and lasts year’s winner Dom Liontas finished third. These three will take on the rest of Canada at the nationals in September.
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The events take mere seconds to compete in, but being a strongman is a 24/7 commitment according to the athletes.
“If we’re not training we’re cooking or eating, your reading a book for mental training. Everything you do is based on the sport, and it’s hard on a family, but to be successful you really have to do that,” Cummine said.
Cummine added that like any athletic career it is a selfish pursuit. This is why they try to give back in a positive way. T-shirts sold of the event will help support the Special Olympics, and Regina’s main strength competition gym, Mettle, has another community-minded program.
“Mettle works with Big Brothers, they bring the Little Brothers to train and do some intro strong man stuff so it’s awesome to get the kids involved. I know my son likes to train for football,” Provack said.
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