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World’s strongest athletes: 3,5 tons of muscle in Székesfehérvár
The men throwing athletes weigh more than 3,5 tons collectively, but are the shot putters, discus throwers, or hammer throwers the heaviest?
New Zealander Tom Walsh – with his 120 kilograms – is not going to be the heaviest athlete at the Gyulai István Memorial – Hungarian Grand Prix. Nevertheless, he had some interesting things to say about how his rivals prepare for competitions.
– Some people need to be angry before the competition, so they purposefully rile themselves up. I even know some people, who want to pick a fight against somebody and some people arrive at the last second out of pure superstition. I am always calm before my throws, which works for me, but it does not work for everyone.
Walsh – who is a successful bodybuilder – says that golf is the perfect source of relaxation. They usually go together with his coach and the rule is never to talk about athletics.
Croatian Filip Mihaljevic – who weighs 115 kilograms – is a big fan of using Instagram. He shared the video of his best throw on his social media feed.
Polish Michael Haratyk is the second heaviest among shot putters with 136 kilograms. Shot putting is a family tradition for him, his brother, Lukasz was also very successful in this event. The heaviest shot putter is Konrad Bukowiecki with 140 kilograms.
The collective weight of the shot putters is 1236 kilograms.
Swedish discus throwing giant Daniel Stahl sees 155 kilograms when he looks at the scale. Doha’s World Champion won in Székesfehérvár the past two years and it will be his fifth time at the Grand Prix.
Jamaican Fedrick Dacres is „only” 104 kilograms, but he is not to be taken lightly since he is the winner of six Diamond Leagues and is a World Championship silver medallist.
Lithuanian Andrius Gudzius is among the leaders with 136 kilograms with Piotr Malachowski not far behind him with 130 kilograms while 207 centimetres tall Christoph Harting weighs 120 kilograms.
If we add the weight of the discus throwers together – including Hungarians János Huszák and Róbert Szikszai – it adds up to 1116 kilograms, more than a ton.
The hammer throwers are no featherweights themselves, but they start from lower numbers: Dániel Rába 116, Bence Pásztor 95, Bence Halász 115, Krisztián Pars 117, Pawel Fajdek 120, Wojciech Nowicki 128, Marcel Lomnicky 106, Eivind Henriksen 116, Mykhaylo Kokhan 103, Taylor Campbell 107, Valeriy Pronkin 115 kilograms. If we got them all on a scale together, they would weigh 1229 kilograms, though there are one more of them than discus throwers.
Tom Walsh’s photo: Reuters