For the first time in the event's eight-year history, the competition will get an injection of girl power.
The all-new women's category will see women get in on the action, taking part in the tyre flip, log walk and a Mazda Zoom-Zoom CX-7 car pull stations in the grand finals on 24 March at Toa Payoh HDB Hub.
This will be in addition to the men's, under 20's tag team and Home Team tag team categories.
Miss Priscilla Leong, corporate affairs executive of event organiser HomeTeamNS, felt it was about time that the event shined its spotlight on women.
“The HomeTeamNS Strongman Challenge embodies the values of mental tenacity, determination, physical strength and agility. Women have these values too and entering our eighth year, it’s time for the competition to be a platform for these courageous ladies to shine and show Singapore what they’ve got,” she said.
13 women turned up at the Civil Defence Academy's National Service Training Institute at Jalan Bahar on 26 February 2012 for the preliminary round.
One of them was 27-year-old trainer Ms Hayati Nuffus Abdul Razak.
Standing at 1.6 metres tall, Hayati took part in the games to challenge herself and as she wanted to try something new every year.
Her previous accomplishments include being the 'Overall Best Female Lifter' in the 2012 Singapore Kettlebell Championship and the female champion of the 2011 Kettlebell Biathlon in Hong Kong.
After three exhausting hours under the sun flipping a 150-kg tyre and carrying two 50-kg logs, Ms Hayati won a place to compete with five other equally competitive women in the finals.
One of the spectators during the preliminary round was impressed by the strength and agility shown by the women.
“It's great that they are including women this time round,” said 25-year-old project engineer Mr Daniel Wong.
“They were all very impressive!”
Watching the Strongman Challenge preliminary rounds for the first time, he felt that the tyre flip was the most challenging station.
“It's very heavy and not many people were able to do it,” he added.
Organisers say this year’s games are more challenging because the equipment used in the contest are heavier than those used in previous years.
For instance, the tyre used for the tyre flips is now 350kg, heavier than the 280kg in 2011.
The log weight for the log walks increased from 100kg in 2011 to 120kg this year (2012).
One Home Team tag team finalist is not daunted by the tougher challenge ahead.
The team consists of 23-year-old Mr Md Bukhary Abu Bakar and 26-year-old Mr Md Abdul Alim Jaabar from Singapore Civil Defence Force's (SCDF) 3rd Division.
The latter is no stranger to public competitions, having joined the Manhunt Singapore pageant in 2009.
He feels that it is his team’s SCDF experience that will set them apart from the others.
“We have a higher mental and physical endurance due to the training we received from our SCDF fire-fighting course,” he said.
“Plus we have a dedicated team manager, Warrant Officer Jalil Muhaban from the Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART), to give us his insights, support, strategy and techniques to overcome any obstacle.”
Keep a look out for more news on this tag team as Home Team News follows them on their Strongman journey.
ORIGINAL SOURCE
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