The 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man competition took place on January 27th, at the Utilita Arena, Sheffield. It marked the start of the competitive pro Strongman season by gathering 12 of the most powerful men in Britain. However, the gold medal was reserved only for the athlete who performed the best. That man turned out to be Tom Stoltman.
The 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man competition proved to be quite an entertaining show, but also one exhausting day for the athletes. It featured five grueling events, which were designed to test the strength, endurance, speed, and other aspects of the athletes.
As soon as two events of the 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man passed, it was pretty clear that Tom Stoltman would be hard to beat. Moreover, he did not drop any valuable points in the remaining three events either, finishing the competition with an 8.5 point lead ahead of the second place finisher. Tom’s performance consisted of three event wins, one second-place, and one fourth-place finish.
2024 Britain’s Strongest Man Results
- Tom Stoltman — 56 points
- Gavin Bilton — 47.5 points
- Luke Stoltman — 46 points
- Shane Flowers — 43.5 points
- Kane Francis — 37 points
- Adam Bishop — 34.5 points
- Pa O’Dwyer — 34 points
- Paul Smith — 25.5 points
- Sean Gillen — 25 points
- Paddy Haynes — 19.5 points
- Mark Felix — 10 points
- Conor Curran — 2.5 points (Withdrew after second event)
Related: 2023 Giants Live World Tour Finals Results — Tom Stoltman Wins
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Event One — Deadlift Decision
The first event of the 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man saw the competitors perform one of the most fundamental strength movements, the Deadlift. Their primary task was to perform as many reps as possible with 400 kilograms (881.8 pounds). Then, when they could not do more, the athletes moved on to the 360-kilogram (793.7-pound) deadlift, where they attempted to do a few more reps.
Note: The deadlift reps performed with the 360-kilogram (793.7-pound) barbell only served as a tiebreaker for athletes who performed an identical number of repetitions with 400 kilograms (881.8 pounds).
Two men topped the leaderboard when it came to deadlifts with 400 kilograms (881.8 pounds), as both Adam Bishop and Tom Stoltman performed five reps. However, the defending Britain’s Strongest Man, Adam, also locked out one rep with 360 kilograms (793.7 pounds), which secured him the win.
With second place going to Tom Stoltman, the rest of the athletes battled for third. Once again, Gavin Bilton and Shane Flowers tied with three reps on the 400-kilogram (881.8-pound) barbell. Similarly, the tiebreak went to Gavin’s favor due to his one rep with 360 kilograms (793.7 pounds).
- Adam Bishop — 5x 400-kg + 1x 360-kg
- Tom Stoltman — 5x 400-kg
- Gavin Bilton — 3x 400-kg + 1x 360-kg
- Shane Flowers — 3x 400-kg
- Luke Stoltman — 2x 400-kg + 2x 360-kg
- Pa O’Dwyer — 2x 400-kg + 2x 360-kg
- Kane Francis — 2x 400-kg + 1x 360-kg
- Sean Gillen — 1x 400-kg + 1x 360-kg
- Paddy Haynes — 1x 400-kg + 1x 360-kg
- Paul Smith — 1x 400-kg
- Conor Curran — 1x 400-kg
- Mark Felix — 2x 360-kg
Event Two — Axle Press
Following an extremely tough challenge on the deadlift, the competitors moved on to the second event, which tested their overhead pressing strength. In turn, they faced a 160-kilogram (352.7-pound) Axle, with which they had to perform as many reps as possible once again.
Tom Stoltman has talked about improving his skills going into 2024, but his performances in the deadlift and the Axle proved that he is one of the most complete Strongman athletes currently. He managed to overhead press 160 kilograms (352.7 pounds) for five reps, making for one of his greatest displays ever on these type of events. None of the other athletes managed to do as much. So Tom took the event win.
Tom’s brother, Luke Stoltman, performed four repetitions, which was enough for a second place position. However, he had to share his spot with Gavin Bilton, as the Welsh Bull locked out four reps as well.
- Tom Stoltman — 5 reps
- Gavin Bilton — 4 reps
- Luke Stoltman — 4 reps
- Paul Smith — 3 reps
- Shane Flowers — 2 reps
- Adam Bishop — 2 reps
- Pa O’Dwyer — 2 reps
- Sean Gillen — 2 reps
- Kane Francis — 1 reps
- Paddy Haynes — 0 reps
- Mark Felix — No attempt
- Conor Curran — 0 reps
Event Three — Blacksmith’s Medley
The third event of the 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man is a brand new addition to Giants Live competitions. It tasked the athletes with carrying an anchor and an anvil for the length of the platform, after which they performed a vertical lift with an even heavier implement.
The third event saw the duel of the Stoltman brothers, as only 0.05 seconds separated them in the end. Although the difference could not be noticed by the naked eye, Tom Stoltman was faster by a fraction of a second, finishing in a time of 27.72 seconds. So, Tom took the win while his older brother, Luke Stoltman finished in second-place.
The third event also suited Kane Francis, who finished in third place with a time of 28.01 seconds. This also marked his first top three finish of the competition.
- Tom Stoltman — 27.72 s
- Luke Stoltman — 27.77 s
- Kane Francis — 28.01 s
- Gavin Bilton — 28.55 s
- Shane Flowers — 28.59 s
- Pa O’Dwyer — 29.26 s
- Paul Smith — 30.61 s
- Sean Gillen — 30.88 s
- Adam Bishop — 31.68 s
- Mark Felix — 34.53 s
- Paddy Haynes — 36.08 s
- Conor Curran — Withdrew
Event Four — Sandbag Throw
The fourth event of the 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man competition was the Sandbag Throw. In this event, the competitors took on six progressively heavier bags filled with sand, which ranged from 18 kilograms (39.7 pounds) to 28 kilograms (61.7 pounds). They had to throw the sandbags over a beam, which the organizers set to a height of 4.6 meters (15-ft 1-in).
Mobility, explosiveness, coordination, and power were all crucial for a good performance at the penultimate event of 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man, and Shane Flowers possessed all of those attributes. So, he ended up taking the max points, having cleared all six bags in just 13.65 seconds.
Gavin Bilton continued to put up consistently good performances and finished in second place once again. He also finished all six bags, but needed 14.86 seconds to do so. Adam Bishop rounded up the top three with a time of 15.94 seconds for all sandbag throws.
- Shane Flowers — 6 in 13.65 s
- Gavin Bilton — 6 in 14.86 s
- Adam Bishop — 6 in 15.94 s
- Tom Stoltman — 6 in 17.63 s
- Kane Francis — 5 in 16.63 s
- Pa O’Dwyer — 5 in 20.73 s
- Luke Stoltman — 5 in 23.90 s
- Paul Smith — 4 in 12.18 s
- Sean Gillen — 4 in 21.68 s
- Paddy Haynes — 4 in 26.20 s
- Mark Felix — 4 in 57.70 s
Event Five — Castle Stones
The final event of the 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man was the Castle Stones. They consisted of five implements in total, all of which had to be lifted from the floor onto their respective platforms. The implements also increased in weight, with the first one coming out to 120 kilograms (264.6 pounds), while the last one weighed a humongous 200 kilograms (440.9 pounds).
Going into the final event, it was highly improbable that Tom Stoltman would finish anywhere lower than first place. He is known as the best stone lifter in the world, and he held up to the standard at the 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man competition as well. In fact, he finished all five stones in just 23.70 seconds, thus winning the event and the competition in a comfortable fashion.
It turned out that the second place position was once again filled by Luke Stoltman, who also displayed an incredible performance on the stones. He blasted through all five implements and was the only other man to finish in under 30 seconds. Paddy Haynes finished in third place, surprising everyone with his incredible stone lifting prowess.
- Tom Stoltman — 5 in 23.70 s
- Luke Stoltman — 5 in 26.49 s
- Paddy Haynes — 5 in 30.39 s
- Kane Francis — 5 in 32.38 s
- Shane Flowers — 4 in 21.23 s
- Gavin Bilton — 4 in 21.57 s
- Pa O’Dwyer — 4 in 22.89 s
- Sean Gillen — 4 in 25.09 s
- Mark Felix — 4 in 25.22 s
- Paul Smith — 4 in 30.86 s
- Adam Bishop — 4 in 33.81 s
Related: Tom Stoltman Smashes a 500-kg (1,102.3-lb) 18-Inch Deadlift In Training
Tom Stoltman was Britain’s Strongest Man in 2021 and 2022, but did not even take part in the 2023 edition of the competition and thus lost his title. This year, Tom aims to add some more major titles to his resume, with his first on the list being 2024 Britain’s Strongest Man. This also marked his sixth professional victory in the 36 International and National competitions that he took part in.
Tom Stoltman will now look ahead to the 2024 Arnold Strongman Classic, which is set to take place on March 1-3, in Columbus, Ohio. He has had a history of bad performances in this competition but hopes to change that in his upcoming appearance. Tom will then focus on the 2024 World’s Strongest Man, where he will be looking to win for the third time in his career.
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