Strongman Chris Van Der Linde Pulled a New African Deadlift Record of 440 kg 

Strongman Chris Van Der Linde had a monumental and historic lift at the 2021 Africa’s Strongest Man on Nov. 27-28, 2021. One of the events was max deadlift, in which we had the opportunity to see Chris Van Der Linde’s record deadlift of 440 kg (970 lbs). What is even more impressive is that Chris broke the record by 20 kg (44 lbs). The previous record was 420 kg (925.4 lbs), it was held by Eben Le Roux who claimed the record in 2016 Arnold Africa.

You can see Chris Van Der Linde’s world record deadlift, which was posted on his Instagram, right here: 

Chris only used straps and a lifting belt here. He also deadlifts with a pretty wide stance, which resembles Thor’s 501 kg lift. He also hinges a lot after getting past his knees, and that is legal in strongman.

Related: WATCH: How To Deadlift And Avoid Mistakes – The Official Deadlift Checklist

Africa’s Strongest Man results

What we can see on Strongman event is that Chris, despite breaking the deadlift record, came 4th. It was a tight battle for first place between two South African competitors, T. Mabaso and J. Schoonwinkel. Mabaso managed to win it with only a difference of 0.5 points. You can see the full list below.

1. Thobelani Mabaso – 49.5
2. Jaco Schoonwinkel- 49
3. Ben Bucarizza – 41.5
4. Chris van der Linde
5. Dean Shelley
6. Terence Bosman
7. Greg Poolman
8. Victor Ampofo

Chris Van Der Linde Strongman Experience

Chris is relatively new to the international scene of strongman, he has had 4 international contests. Three of those were Africa’s Strongest man and one was World’s Strongest Man 2021. In the WSM he had to withdraw due to injury after loading the medley and deadlift for repetitions. His greatest success was first place at Africa’s Strongest Man 2019. We can also compare his second place finish in Africa’s Strongest Man 2020 where he deadlifted 400 kg (882 lbs) and this year’s 4th place finish with a 40 kg (88 lbs) deadlift improvement. 

With this record under his hat and loads of deadlift content on his Instagram, could this mean that Chris has primarily focused on deadlifts. If his improvement continues, like it has been in the past year, Chris could sooner or later be included in that deadlift world record race.

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