The 2023 England’s Strongest Man competition took place on October 1st, in Doncaster, thus featuring a total of five events and 12 incredible competitors. However, all eyes were pointed towards an incredible young man who has been absent from the scene for the past two years. The man in question was Luke Richardson, who was once considered to be one of the fastest rising names in Strongman. Well, he is now once again impressing everyone, as Luke came out victorious at the contest and became 2023 England’s Strongest Man.
During the entire competition, Luke Richardson never placed lower than second place. He also claimed two event victories and ended up winning by almost 10 points of difference. So, despite not competing for such a long time, Luke seems to be more in tune than ever.
2023 England’s Strongest Man Results
- Luke Richardson — 56 points
- Kane Francis — 46.5 points
- Patrick Haynes — 46 points
- Paul Smith — 42.5 points
- Andrew Flynn — 37.5 points
- Jack Osborn — 36.5 points
- Mark Felix — 28.5 points
- John Harker — 28 points
- Josh Brown — 19.5 points
- Shane Nye — 19 points
- Ben Glasscock — 15.5 points
- Ben Williams — 11.6 points
Related: Luke Richardson Wins Europe’s Strongest Man 2020
Event One — Log Lift
The first challenge that the athletes faced at the 2023 England’s Strongest Man competition was the Log Lift. In this event, the athletes took on a huge 140-kilogram Log with the aim to perform as many repetitions as possible.
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Luke Richardson immediately displayed incredible strength, having tied for first place in the opening event of the competition. He managed to lock out nine reps, which was exactly the same as what Jack Osborn was able to do.
The third place was also shared, but between three athletes instead. Each of the three athletes performed eight repetitions, which earned them nine points.
- Luke Richardson — 9 reps
- Jack Osborn — 9 reps
- Paul Smith — 8 reps
- Kane Francis — 8 reps
- Shane Nye — 8 reps
- Josh Brown — 7 reps
- Ben Williams — 7 reps
- Andrew Flynn — 5 reps
- Patrick Haynes — 2 reps
- John Harker — 1 reps
- Ben Glasscock — 1 reps
- Mark Felix — 0 reps
Event Two — Deadlift
The second event of the 2023 England’s Strongest Man competition was the deadlift for repetitions. Moreover, an Axle barbell was utilized making the 320-kilogram deadlift even more difficult. The athletes were allowed to use lifting straps.
Patrick Haynes put in an unbelievable performance which helped him claim the top spot with a total of 10 repetitions. This was especially impressive considering his poor performance in the first event.
Two men, Luke Richardson and Mark Felix, got close to equaling Patrick’s result, but both got stuck on nine reps in the deadlift event. So, one of the nation’s greatest prospects and another Icon of Strongman were forced to share the points.
- Patrick Haynes — 10 reps
- Luke Richardson — 9 reps
- Mark Felix — 9 reps
- Paul Smith — 8 reps
- Andrew Flynn — 8 reps
- Jack Osborn — 7 reps
- Kane Francis — 6 reps
- John Harker — 6 reps
- Josh Brown — 4 reps
- Shane Nye — 4 reps
- Ben Williams — 4 reps
- Ben Glasscock — 2 reps
Event Three — Sandbag Steeplechase
For the third event of the 2023 England’s Strongest Man competition the athletes had to carry and lift two 150-kilogram sandbags over a beam. Then, they went on the other side of the beam as well and carried the sandbags to their respective platforms.
Unfortunately, the exact times to complete the event were not revealed for any athlete. However, the athletes below are listed in the order in which they placed. So, Luke Richardson won the event.
- Luke Richardson
- Patrick Haynes
- Kane Francis
- Andrew Flynn
- Paul Smith
- John Harker
- Ben Glasscock
- Jack Osborn
- Mark Felix
- Shane Nye
- Ben Williams
- Josh Brown
Event Four — Yoke Carry
With the events for the 2023 England’s Strongest Man being the same as they were for the 2023 Britain’s Strongest Woman, the men took on the Yoke Carry for their penultimate test. Moreover, the Yoke was absolutely massive, as the total weight came out to 420 kilograms. The athletes had to pick it up from the floor and carry it for 20 meters.
It was an extremely tight race between Kane Francis and Luke Richardson, even coming down to just a fraction of a second. Kane still came out on top, finishing the course in 10.87 seconds. On the other hand, Luke earned second place with a time of 10.96 seconds.
While no one was really close to the top two finishers, Paul Smith was still the man who took third. His time came out to 12.69 seconds, which was also substantially faster than the remaining competitors.
- Kane Francis — 10.87 s
- Luke Richardson — 10.96 s
- Paul Smith — 12.69 s
- Andrew Flynn — 14.45 s
- Jack Osborn — 15.53 s
- Patrick Haynes — 15.81 s
- Mark Felix — 17.10 s
- Josh Brown — 19.35 s
- John Harker — 20.10 s
- Ben Glasscock — 35.04 s
- Shane Nye — 17.21 m
- Ben Williams — Withdrew
Event Five — Power Stairs
The final event of the 2023 England’s Strongest Man was the Power Stairs. It featured four increasingly heavier implements, which the athletes had to lift and carry up a flight of three stairs each.
First implement: 200 kilograms
Second implement: 210 kilograms
Third implement: 225 kilograms
Fourth implement: 250 kilograms
The final event of the competition turned out to be the most interesting, as four athletes finished within half a second of each other. The one who came out on top was Patrick Haynes, having needed just 33.94 seconds to complete all four implements.
Luke Richardson’s title was pretty much secure even before the final event, but he made sure to dominate the overall leaderboards by claiming another impressive performance in the final event. He finished in second place with a time of 34.11 seconds to complete the event.
Kane Francis was just 0.01 seconds slower than Luke, which pushed him down to third place in the event. While the difference between the two was unnoticeable by the naked eye, the stopwatch still showed the true result.
- Patrick Haynes — 12 in 33.94 s
- Luke Richardson — 12 in 34.11 s
- Kane Francis — 12 in 34.12 s
- John Harker — 12 in 34.57 s
- Mark Felix — 12 in 38.41 s
- Paul Smith — 12 in 40.28 s
- Andrew Flynn — 12 in 43.69 s
- Jack Osborn — 11 in 43.73 s
- Josh Brown — 10 in 53.96 s
- Ben Glasscock — 8 in 49.10 s
- Shane Nye — 6 in 31.96 s
- Ben Williams — Withdrew
Related: Luke Richardson Looks Like A Machine With Massive 904lb Deadlift Triple
Luke Richardson went from having no injuries to suffering multiple in a row. He even captured one on video, as his bicep tore while he was doing Atlas Stones. So, his last competition prior to the injuries was at the 2021 WSM, and he has recently returned to the sport. However, his return looks very promising as Luke is already in possession of a new title, being the new England’s Strongest Man.
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