The 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic took place on July 9, 2022, at the Royal Albert Hall in London, England, and turned out to be quite interesting. The one-day competition featured one World’s Strongest Man winner and 11 world-class Strongmen. All of them competed across five events in the hopes of standing atop the podium.
However, only one athlete could claim the gold and it was Oleksii Novikov who won the 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic.
Oleksii Novikov also won the Giants Live Strongman Classic last year, so he just successfully defended his title. He did so by winning three out of the five events. Mitchell Hooper finished in second place, which is mind-blowing considering that this is his second major Strongman Competition. Evan Singleton finished in third place.
2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic Results & Point Standings
- Oleksii Novikov — 54 points
- Mitchell Hooper — 42 points
- Evan Singleton — 41.5 points
- Maxime Boudreault — 38.5 points
- Paul Smith — 36 points
- Eddie Williams — 34 points
- Spenser Remick — 32.5 points
- Gavin Bilton — 30.5 points
- Rob Kearney — 28 points
- Mark Felix — 28 points
- Ken McClelland — 20 points
- Andy Black — 1 point (Withdrew after event one)
Related: Iron Biby Withdraws From The 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic, Eddie Williams Steps In
2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic Recap
Event One — Dumbbell Medley
The Dumbbell Medley was the opening event of the 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic. Five dumbbells ranging from 80 kilograms (176 pounds) to 120 kilograms (265 pounds). The time limit for this event was 75 seconds.
As expected, due to his famous dumbbell overhead pressing skills, Oleksii Novikov started his performance in the most perfect way possible. He was closely followed by Rob Kearney, who is known to have powerful shoulders from his log lifts. Mitchell Hooper completed the top three for this event.
- Oleksii Novikov — 5 in 38.38 s / 12 points
- Rob Kearney — 5 in 42.21 s / 11 points
- Mitchell Hooper — 4 in 31.46 s / 10 points
- Paul Smith — 4 in 43.36 s / 9 points
- Gavin Bilton — 4 in 46.27 s / 8 points
- Spenser Remick — 4 in 52.70 s / 7 points
- Maxime Boudreault — 4 in 69.81 s / 6 points
- Ken McClelland — 3 in 59.30 s / 5 points
- Evan Singleton — 2 in 13.13 s / 4 points
- Eddie Williams — 2 in 18.10 s / 3 points
- Mark Felix — 1 in 8.06 s / 2 points
- Andy Black — 1 in 15.08 s / 1 point
Event Two — Pillars Of Hercules
The Pillars Of Hercules were primarily a grip based event, which is also known as the Hercules Hold. The competitors grabbed two pillars, which were leaning to opposite sides, and had to hold them for as long as possible.
Unfortunately, Andy Black withdrew from the 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic before the start of this event. Eddie Williams surprised everyone, as it turned out that his grip was strongest out of the remaining 11 competitors. Paul Smith also performed brilliantly to take second place, while Hooper claimed another consecutive third-place finish.
- Eddie Williams — 72.01 s / 12 points
- Paul Smith — 67.10 s / 11 points
- Evan Singleton — 64.94 s / 10 points
- Mitchell Hooper — 64.65 s / 9 points
- Oleksii Novikov — 58.11 s / 8 points
- Mark Felix — 53.59 s / 7 points
- Gavin Bilton — 52.34 s / 6 points
- Spenser Remick — 52.16 s / 5 points
- Maxime Boudreault — 50.21 s / 4 points
- Ken McClelland — 47.53 s / 3 points
- Rob Kearney — 35.95 s / 2 points
- Andy Black — (Withdrew)
Event Three — Farmer’s Carry
For the third event of the 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic, the competitors carried two “Farmer’s” implements for the maximum distance possible.
Oleksii Novikov took his second event win of the 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic and put himself in a great position for the remainder of the contest. Following his underwhelming performances in the past two events, Maxime Boudreault also covered a massive distance and fell just short of Novikov.
- Oleksii Novikov — 63.3 m / 12 points
- Maxime Boudreault — 60 m / 11 points
- Paul Smith — 58 m / 10 points
- Evan Singleton — 55.5 m / 9 points
- Eddie Williams — 53.25 m / 8 points
- Mark Felix — 52.35 m / 7 points
- Spenser Remick — 44.15 m / 6 points
- Ken McClelland — 41.4 m / 5 points
- Mitchell Hooper — 29.6 m / 4 points
- Rob Kearney — 20.5 m / 3 points
- Gavin Bilton — 15 m / 2 points
Related: Adam Bishop Withdraws From The 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic, Gavin Bilton Steps In
Event Four — Deadlift
The penultimate event of the 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic was the axle deadlift for repetitions. The weight of the deadlift was 360 kilograms (793 pounds).
With yet another first-place finish, Oleksii Novikov basically secured himself the overall victory. Only Paul Smith was close enough to rival Novikov, but he seriously underperformed in this event having performed only one rep. Mitchell Hooper also scored massive points in his chase for the podium.
- Oleksii Novikov — 7 reps / 12 points
- Mitchell Hooper — 6 reps / 11 points
- Mark Felix — 5 reps / 10 points
- Evan Singleton — 4 reps / 8.5 points
- Spenser Remick — 4 reps / 8.5 points
- Rob Kearney — 3 reps / 7 points
- Gavin Bilton — 2 reps / 5.5 points
- Maxime Boudreault — 2 reps / 5.5 points
- Eddie Williams — 1 rep / 3 points
- Paul Smith — 1 rep / 3 points
- Ken McClelland — 1 rep / 3 points
Event Five — Castle Stones
As almost always, the castle stones, also known as atlas stones, wrap up the 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic. They used the heavier set of stones this time. So, the competitors lifted five implements ranging from 120 kilograms (265 pounds) to 200 kilograms (441 pounds).
Maxime Boudreault had a stellar performance, but it was only enough to secure him a top four finish overall. The most interesting result from this event was Evan Singleton’s, as he beat Paul Smith head-to-head and finished third overall.
- Maxime Boudreault — 5 in 24.03 s / 12 points
- Evan Singleton — 5 in 25.59 s / 11 points
- Oleksii Novikov — 5 in 25.60 s / 10 points
- Gavin Bilton — 5 in 27.23 s / 9 points
- Eddie Williams — 5 in 34.31 s / 8 points
- Mitchell Hooper — 5 in 35.58 s / 7 points
- Spenser Remick — 5 in 51.24 s / 6 points
- Rob Kearney — 4 in 23.21 s / 5 points
- Ken McClelland — 4 in 23.94 s / 4 points
- Paul Smith — 4 in 31.78 s / 3 points
- Mark Felix — 3 in 24.56 s / 2 points
Related: Konstantine Janashia Withdraws From 2022 Giants Live Strongman Classic, Maxime Boudreault Steps In
Oleksii Novikov has scored another victory despite all the difficulties he and his country are going through. Apart from the victory in the 2022 Giants Live Strongman Class, Oleksii also won the 2022 Europe’s Strongest Man. He also finished third in the 2022 World’s Strongest Man, and second in the 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic.
This seems to be the year of Novikov and he is still set to take part in more competitions in the next few months.
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