World strength titles in their sights

THREE of Bendigo’s strongest athletes are preparing to flex their muscles at the Official Strongman Games in the United States in December.

Sharlene ‘Charlie’ Lendon, Arron Lightburn and Jane Laidler will be pitting their strength against nearly 400 strongmen and women over four days in Madison, Wisconsin, from 5 to 8 December in pursuit of world championships in their respective weight categories.

Ms Lendon, who owns and operates the Warrior Fit Strength Gym in Golden Square and is an established coach and competitor, started the business as a spinoff to her pole studio after the COVID lockdowns.

She has now competed in strength events for several years.

Ms Lendon and Mr Lightburn qualified to enter the world finals through their recent results, while Ms Laidler, who hails from Castlemaine, made the grade through an online qualification process.

The December trip, which is self-funded, will be the trio’s first attempt at ‘World’s Strongest’ honours.

Ms Lendon will be competing in the under 73 kilogram women’s division; Mr Lightburn in the under 80 kilogram men’s category, and Ms Laidler in the open women’s section.

They will initially compete in four events – a log press (repetitions), a car walk, an axle deadlift (repetitions) and a sandbag medley, with the top 10 going through to finals.

The log press involves lifting and pressing a cylinder from pads to overhead as many times as possible in 60 seconds.

In the car walk, competitors inside a car body carry it as far as possible on a 15-metre course, again within a 60-second timeframe.

The axle deadlift requires athletes to deadlift a light axle or a heavy ‘trump’ axle as many times as possible within the same time limit.

And the sandbag medley involves competitors carrying a sandbag 15.25 metres down a course and loading it onto a sled before running back to pick up a competition-specific Husafell sandbag and also loading it onto the sled.

Once the sandbags are loaded, athletes must push the sled back down the course until the front of it crosses a line.

Events in the top-10 finals include a sandbag toss, a wrecking ball hold and an Atlas stone series.

Ms Lendon said that personally, she will be very happy to just reach the top 10 in her division.

“That’s the goal for all of us – just to make that extra day,” she said. “Anything further than that will be a bonus.”

Ms Lendon said she and her colleagues know they are facing some very stiff – and strong – competition – she said some female competitors in the U.S. are now lifting some staggering weights.

“We’re all excited, but nervous,” Ms Lendon said. “We’ve done as much as we can and whatever happens, happens.”

The three competitors are training four times a week before they leave for Wisconsin on 28 November.