Invergordon athlete Tom Stoltman behind at halfway point of World Strongest Man final. Luke Stoltman also competing in final
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DEFENDING champion Tom Stoltman has made an encouraging start in the 2023 World Strongest Man final after a strong finish at the halfway point of the competition.
The defending champion from Invergordon, who is aiming to become the World's Strongest Man for the third year in a row, is in third place after three rounds in North Carolina.
He has 24 points, but only one point behind current leader Mitchell Hooper from Canada on 25, with Oleksii Novikov from Ukraine second on 24.5.
His older brother Luke, is in ninth place in the final on eight points.
In the opening round, Luke made a good start in the Reign Total Body Fuel Shield Carry finishing second place carrying the shield in 63.15 metres.
Tom finished in sixth place with 44.62 metres with Hooper winning the round with 64.80 metres.
In the Knaack Deadlift, Tom had a poor round finishing in sixth place with only five reps.
Luke finished last in the deadlift with only three reps, with Hooper also winning the second round with eight reps.
But Tom stormed back to win the Fingal's Fingers with five reps in 39.36 seconds.
He was three seconds ahead of Nokikov in second place in 42.26 seconds and almost 10 seconds ahead of Trey Mitchell of the United States in third place with 48.46 seconds.
Hooper had a disastrous third round finishing sixth in 49.89 with Luke Stoltman eighth with four reps in 32.54 seconds.
The final three events on Sunday include the Max Dumbbell at 1pm, the vehicle pull at 3.10pm and the final event the Atlas Stones at 6.54pm.
World Strongest Man leaderboard
(After 3 of 6 events)
Mitchell Hooper (Canada) 25
Oleksii Novikov (Ukraine) 24.5
Tom Stoltman (Scotland) 24
Trey Mitchell (United States) 22.5
Evan Singleton (United States) 15.5
Brian Shaw (United States) 14.5
Pavlo Kordiyaka (Ukraine) 14
Matthew Ragg (New Zealand) 11.5
Luke Stoltman (Scotland) 8
Jaco Schoonwinkel (South Africa) 5
