The 2024 England’s Strongest Man competition took place on June 22nd in York, and it consisted of 13 athletes in total. They had to perform five events that were carefully designed to test all aspects of Strongman, and thus determine the National champion. Ultimately, that turned out to be Kane Francis.
Kane Francis won two events at the 2024 England’s Strongest Man competition and, along with another three solid events, managed to accumulate 52 points. Francis claimed the win during the final moments of the competition, utilizing Andrew Flynn’s slip-up on the final event. Flynn had a 4.5-point lead over Francis going into the Castle Stones, but his seventh place finish pushed him down to second overall.
2024 England’s Strongest Man Results
- Kane Francis — 52 points
- Andrew Flynn — 50.5 points
- Paddy Haynes — 47.5 points
- Luke Richardson — 44.5 points
- Ben Glasscock — 37 points
- John Harker — 35.5 points
- William Relf — 35 points
- Joe Oliver — 34 points
- Mark Felix — 26.5 points
- Jack Osborn — 26 points
- Ryan Bennett — 25 points
- Tom Place — 20 points
- Mitch Flowers — 19.5 points
Related: 2024 UK’s Strongest Man Results — Paul Smith Wins Third Consecutive Title
Event Recap
Event One — Loading Race
For event one of the 2024 England’s Strongest Man competition, the athletes had to perform a Loading Race. It consisted of four implements, all of which were placed a certain distance away from the loading deck. The goal was to pick up, carry, and load all four implements in the shortest time possible.
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- First Implement: 110-kg (242.5-lb) Anvil
- Second Implement: 120-kg (264.6-lb) Keg
- Third Implement: 150-kg (330.7-lb) Sandbag
- Fourth Implement: 120-kg (264.6-lb) Tire
Luke Richardson made his first appearance in over half a year, as he has been battling a bicep injury. However, he immediately took the win in his first event back, having moved across the field with frightening speed. He ended up finishing all four implements in 36.87 seconds.
Luke had a very difficult task, as he was being chased by the equally impressing Kane Francis. In fact, Francis finished just 0.45 seconds behind Richardson, making it a true photo finish. Moreover, Andrew Flynn finished in third place, loading the final implement just one second after Kane.
- Luke Richardson — 4 in 36.87 s
- Kane Francis — 4 in 37.32 s
- Andrew Flynn — 4 in 38.55 s
- William Relf — 4 in 40.72 s
- John Harker — 4 in 41.48 s
- Ben Glasscock — 4 in 42.97 s
- Joe Oliver — 4 in 43.70 s
- Paddy Haynes — 4 in 43.81 s
- Tom Place — 4 in 44.75 s
- Ryan Bennett — 4 in 44.79 s
- Jack Osborn — 4 in 50.37 s
- Mark Felix — 4 in 59.81 s
- Mitch Flowers — 3 in 40.27 s
Event Two — Dumbbell Press
The second event of the 2024 England’s Strongest Man was a true test of upper body strength. The athletes came out in pairs of two and all pushed themselves to the limit in order to perform as many reps as possible with a 90-kilogram (198.4-pound) dumbbell. The trick is, they had to overhead press the dumbbell with just one arm.
The Dumbbell Press turned out to be a very indecisive event, as multiple people tied for certain positions. Specifically, three men shared the first place since all of them locked out seven repetitions. The men in question are Andrew Flynn, William Relf, and Joe Oliver.
- Andrew Flynn — 7 reps
- William Relf — 7 reps
- Joe Oliver — 7 reps
- Luke Richardson — 6 reps
- Ryan Bennett — 6 reps
- Kane Francis — 5 reps
- Ben Glasscock — 5 reps
- Tom Place — 4 reps
- Jack Osborn — 4 reps
- Paddy Haynes — 3 reps
- John Harker — 2 reps
- Mark Felix — 1 reps
- Mitch Flowers — 0 reps
Event Three — Deadlift
Keeping the same format as the one in event two, the third event tasked the athletes with performing as many reps as possible, but this time on an Axle Deadlift setup. This way, the organizers ensured that the core and lower body strength were tested as well.
The deadlift for reps also featured a lot of ties, but it was definitely more intense. Multiple men went rep-for-rep against each other, hoping to get one rep more as it would bring them unproportionally more points. In the end, Kane Francis and Paddy Haynes sat atop the leaderboards. Both of them locked out six reps and received 12.5 points each.
With one rep less than the duo, Andrew Flynn and Mitch Flowers also tied for third place. Both of them were incredible, but they could not get the sixth rep up. Consequently, they received 10.5 points each.
It is also important to note that Luke Richardson decided not to take part in the deadlift event, presumably to avoid injuring himself again, as he has probably not fully recovered yet.
- Kane Francis — 6 reps
- Paddy Haynes — 6 reps
- Andrew Flynn — 5 reps
- Mitch Flowers — 5 reps
- Ryan Bennett — 4 reps
- Tom Place — 4 reps
- John Harker — 4 reps
- Mark Felix — 4 reps
- Ben Glasscock — 3 reps
- Jack Osborn — 3 reps
- Joe Oliver — 2 reps
- William Relf — 1 reps
- Luke Richardson — No Lift
Event Four — Wrecking Ball Hold
One grip and endurance event also found its way into the 2024 England’s Strongest Man, and it was none other than the Wrecking Ball Hold. Stationed on a tall rig, the athletes grabbed a bar that was connected with the huge 242-kilogram (533.5-pound) Wrecking Ball underneath them. They then had to hold it for as long as possible, despite the progressively increasing physical and mental pain.
Although the majority of people expected Felix to take the win in this event, Paddy Haynes came out and impressed everyone. He was the only man that managed to hold the wrecking ball for over 100 seconds, which gave him a very comfortable first place finish.
Luke Richardson finished in second place, dropping the wrecking ball at the 96.59-second mark. Perhaps not performing the deadlift was the correct choice, since it helped preserve his grip strength for this event.
The fan favorite, Mark Felix, finished in third place with a time of 94.42 seconds. It is clearly still a very impressive result, especially for a man who is 58-years-old.
- Paddy Haynes — 101.12 s
- Luke Richardson — 96.59 s
- Mark Felix — 94.42 s
- Andrew Flynn — 80.81 s
- Joe Oliver — 80.46 s
- John Harker — 77.16 s
- Kane Francis — 76.06 s
- Ben Glasscock — 72.81 s
- William Relf — 68.57 s
- Jack Osborn — 67.98 s
- Mitch Flowers — 62.33 s
- Ryan Bennett — 57.04 s
- Tom Place — 43.22 s
Event Five — Castle Stones
To wrap up the 2024 England’s Strongest Man, the athletes took on a series of extremely heavy Castle Stones. The weight of the stones ranged from 100-kg (220.5-lb) to 180-kg (196.8-lb), and the goal was to load all of them onto their respective platforms. The quickest man to perform the task won.
All but one athlete managed to complete the entire event, which shows just how great the lineup of athletes was. The fastest out of them was Kane Francis, being the only man with a time below 20 seconds. With this performance, Kane officially became the 2024 England’s Strongest Man.
The battle for second place was extremely tight, as three men finished within just 0.33 seconds. So, they all finished in a blink of an eye, but Paddy Haynes came out on top with a time of 21.19 seconds. Ben Glasscock finished in third place with 21.36, while Luke Richardson had to settle for fourth place.
- Kane Francis — 5 in 18.54 s
- Paddy Haynes — 5 in 21.19 s
- Ben Glasscock — 5 in 21.36 s
- Luke Richardson — 5 in 21.52 s
- Jack Osborn — 5 in 21.73 s
- John Harker — 5 in 21.81 s
- Andrew Flynn — 5 in 23.51 s
- William Relf — 5 in 24.66 s
- Mitch Flowers — 5 in 26.65 s
- Mark Felix — 5 in 37.27 s
- Joe Oliver — 5 in 44.33 s
- Ryan Bennett — 5 in 50.38 s
- Tom Place — 4 in 28.74 s
Related: 2024 Strongest Man in Iceland Results — Vilius Jokužys Wins
Kane Francis has been on a streak of great results recently, most notably winning the 2024 SCL Serbia and now the 2024 England’s Strongest Man as well. So it is clear that he is quickly progressing, especially when taking into account that he started competing at a higher level just two years ago. He has already taken part in 18 International and 4 National competitions, claiming three wins along the way.
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