2017 World's Strongest Man

2017 World's Strongest Man

Host city	Gaborone, Botswana
Winner	Eddie Hall[1]
Athletes participating	29
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The 2017 World's Strongest Man was the 40th edition of the World's Strongest Man competition. It was held in Gaborone, Botswana from May 20-28 2017.

The tournament was won by Eddie Hall of England, with Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson of Iceland second and defending champion Brian Shaw of the United States third. Hall announced after the competition that he would not defend his title.^[2] Multiple time champion Zydrunas Savickas of Lithuania finished in ninth place; this marked the first time in his career that he failed to finish in the top three after qualifying for the final.

Qualifying

A change was made to the qualifying rounds for 2017. Each group participated in five normal events, with the highest scoring competitor at the end of those events being declared the group winner and automatically qualifying for the final. The lowest scoring competitor was eliminated from further competition.

In a throwback to early competitions, where a head to head competition determined the overall champion, the four remaining competitors faced off in an event called Last Man Standing. The event consisted of a hurdle placed in the middle of an octagon with a white square in the middle, in which was placed an Atlas Stone.

The event was conducted in a stepladder format, with the fifth place and fourth place competitors beginning the event. Each competitor took turns lifting the stone from their side of the square and dropping it over the hurdle. The lift had to be started from within the square and each competitor was given ten seconds to lift and drop the stone. Once one of them could not complete the task, he was eliminated from the event and the third place competitor stepped in. The survivor of that matchup took on the second place competitor, with the winner of the event joining the overall group winner in the final.

Heat 1

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Brian Shaw		27
2	Jean-François Caron		24
3	Matjaz Belsak		21
4	Colm Woulfe		16.5
5	Tom Stoltman		6
6	Mark Felix		3.5

Heat 2

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson		26
2	Martins Licis		21
3	Luke Stoltman		20
4	Stefán Sölvi Pétursson		14
5	Jimmy Paquet		13
6	Dimitar Savatinov		4

Heat 3

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Konstantine Janashia		24.5
2	Laurence Shahlaei		19
3	Mikhail Shivlyakov		18
4	Johan Els		15
5	Rob Kearney		15
6	Mikkel Leicht		13.5

Heat 4

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Eddie Hall		24.5
2	Mateusz Kieliszkowski		22.5
3	Ari Gunnarsson		22.5
4	Derek DeVaughn		13.5
5	Lauri Nämi		10.5
6	Gerhard Van Staden		7.5

Heat 5

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Nick Best		22
2	Zydrunas Savickas		22
3	Peiman Maheripour		18.5
4	Terry Hollands		17
5	Bryan Benzel		13.5
6	Olu Fadesire		5

Final standings

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Eddie Hall		51
2	Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson		50
3	Brian Shaw		48
4	Martins Licis		36.5
5	Jean-François Caron		35.5
6	Mateusz Kieliszkowski		29
7	Laurence Shahlaei		25.5
8	Konstantine Janashia		23
9	Zydrunas Savickas		21.5
10	Nick Best		10

References