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The 2006 Met-Rx World's Strongest Man was the 29th edition of World's Strongest Man and was won by the American Phil Pfister, the first time the competition has been won by an American since Bill Kazmaier's victory in 1982. It took place between the 14th and 23rd of September 2006, in Sanya, China.

Contents 1 The Competitiors 2 Format 3 Events 4 Heats[3] 4.1 Heat 1 4.2 Heat 2 4.3 Heat 3 4.4 Heat 4 4.5 Heat 5 5 Final 6 See also 7 References and Descriptions 8 External links

25 competitiors from 14 different countries took part in the event, including 3 former champions:

• Magnus Samuelsson (1998)
• Janne Virtanen (2000)
• Mariusz Pudzianowski (2002, 2003 and 2005)

The eldest competitor was Norwegian Odd Haugen, who was 56, while the youngest was fellow Norwegian Arild Haugen (No relation) who was just 20.

The 25 competitors were split into 5 separate heats, each consisting of 6 events. After each event each competitor was given points from 5 for first to 1 for last. Half points occur if more than 1 competitor has the same result and no points of scored if a competitor doesn't take part in an event. The points are tallied up after the 6 events and the 2 with the most points from each heat progress to the final. The final consisted of 7 events and the champion was the competitor with the most points after all of the events.

There was a total of 11 different events used in the competition and they were:

• Farmer's Walk
• Keg Toss
• Car Dead Lift
• Car Walk
• Overhead Stone Lift
• Barrel Loading Race
• Cannonnball Carry & Sledge Drag
• Fingal Fingers^[1]
• Power Stairs
• Bus Pull
• Atlas Stones^[2]

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Poland	25
2	Don Pope	USA	18.5
3	Arild Haugen	Norway	16
4	Reza Gharaei	Iran	16
5	Jessen Paulin	Canada	11.5

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Terry Hollands	United Kingdom	22.5
2	Raivis Vidzis	Latvia	21.5
3	Jesse Marunde	USA	20.5
4	Dave Ostlund	USA	19.5
5	Gu Yan Li	China	5

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Phil Pfister	USA	21.5
2	Mark Felix	Grenada	18
3	Janne Virtanen	Finland	17.5
4	Elbrus Nigmatullin	Russia	17
5	Darren Sadler	United Kingdom	16

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Tarmo Mitt	Estonia	21
2	Jarek Dymek	Poland	20.5
3	Boris Haraldsson	Iceland	19
4	Dominic Filiou	Canada	19.5
5	Kevin Nee	USA	12.5

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Sebastian Wenta	Poland	26.5
2	Slawek Tozcek	Poland	23
3	Josh Thigpen	USA	17
4	Odd Haugen	Norway	10.5
5	Magnus Samuelsson	Sweden	8 (Inj.)

Mariusz Pudzianowski, the reigning champion, started well in the final. He was joint first with Mark Felix in the Dead Lift, with 17 lifts and won the power stairs in 26.33 seconds, almost 8 seconds faster than second placed Tarmo Mitt. The power stairs proved a tough task for others though, Raivis Vidzis coped the worst but managed to carry on.^[4]In the 3rd event, the overhead stone lift, Phil Pfister dominated and lifted all 4 stones, while no other competitor could lift more than 2. The top 5 after the first day of the final was:

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Poland	28.5
2	Mark Felix	Grenada	21.5
3	Phil Pfister	USA	21
4	Tarmo Mitt	Estonia	17
5	Don Pope	USA	17

Pfister dramatically closed the gap to Pudzianowski in the 2 events on day 2 of the final as he won both of them. Pudzianowski struggled to 6th in the Fingal Fingers, while Pfister set a world record time of 5 fingers in 31.92 second and in the bus pull Pfister managed to pull his bus just 12 centimetres further than Pudzianowski to leave himself 1.5 points behind the leader. The top 5 after the second day of the final was:

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Poland	42.5
2	Phil Pfister	USA	41
3	Don Pope	USA	32
4	Mark Felix	Grenada	30.5
5	Tarmo Mitt	Estonia	27

Despite having won 3 events in a row, many people expected Pfister to struggle in the Car Walk^[5] and he needed something special once Pudzianowski had set a time of 27.4 seconds and amazingly Pfister beat it by just over half a second, meaning the 2006 WSM would go right down to the wire in the Atlas Stones, with just half a point separating them. The Atlas Stones proved to be extremely tight but Pfister just edged Pudzianowski and let out a great celebratory roar as a devastated Pudzianowski let his 5th stone roll off the platform. Don Pope recovered well to finish 3rd having come last in the first event. The final results:^[6]

#	Name	Nationality	Pts
1	Phil Pfister	USA	61
2	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Poland	57.5
3	Don Pope	USA	45
4	Mark Felix	Grenada	38.5
5	Tarmo Mitt	Estonia	38
6	Sebastian Wenta	Poland	36.5
7	Terry Hollands	United Kingdom	30
8	Jarek Dymek	Poland	29
9	Raivis Vidzis	Latvia	26
10	Slawek Toczek	Poland	20.5

• World's Strongest Man

1. ^ Description of Fingal FIngers on Official Website
2. ^ Description of Atlas Stones on Official Website
3. ^ Heats result tables
4. ^ Image of Vidzis' bloody hand
5. ^ WSM: Pfister Wins 4th Event in a Row!
6. ^ Results table for Final (Bottom of Page)

• Official site