Abu Dhabi: As the moment of announcing the winner of the World's Strongest Man (WSM) approached, spectators were on their feet chanting for their favourites.
The three-day competition of strength and power brought forth Krysztof Radzikowski, a 30-year-old Polish man, as the 2012 World's Strongest Man.
The competition began last Sunday with 25 contenders from 22 countries vying for the top title and the trophy.
All 25 super strongmen lined up for the announcement, only eight of whom competed on the third and final day of the competition. Expectations were very high among the finalists, each hoping to be awarded the title. As the top rankings were being announced in reverse order, excitement was heightened as the unannounced names remained hopeful of being named the title winner.
Cheers got louder as officials were announcing the top ranking holders. The stadium seemed to support the judges' decision to award the title to Radzikowski. He scored 35 points to win the title and the top prize of $6,000 (Dh22, 068).
"I am very happy with the result. I trained hard and the competitors where very strong. I competed in various countries, but the competition in the UAE was a tough one," the WSM champion told Gulf News.
Laurence Shahahlaei was a close second accumulating a total of 33 points.
Largest numbers
"I am really happy to be in the UAE for the first time, and hopefully I will return next year to win the title," said Shahahlaei.
Josh Thigpen from the USA came third with a score of 27 points. I did well, but wanted to do better," he told Gulf News.
The President of the World Strongmen Federation was pleased with the overall result of the competition but did not seem surprised with the result.
"This is the largest numbers of countries represented in the WSM contest. We were honoured by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan's support for the event," he told Gulf News.
Spectators were enthusiastically cheering for their favourite athletes. Having the world strongmen competition live in Abu Dhabi was an opportunity most did not want to miss even if it was on Valentine's Day.
"I follow the competition worldwide on TV. My wife is angry with me tonight for not taking her out on Valentine, but I had promised the kids to take their picture with the WSM," said one spectator, Subra.
