Williams Lake lifters Tyson Delay, Garrett Leroy and Joseph Willburn continue their impressive streak started in Surrey earlier this year.
On May 14th in Kelowna, Delay and Ksenia Kolodka faced off against a mixture of new blood and grizzled veterans. Events included a heavy car deadlift, farmer’s walk, sandbag run, log press, and natural stone lift.
Willburn maintains his Canadian 90kg log press record as nobody surpassed it at this competition. Kolodka put up a fight in the novice women’s division coming top three in every event and scoring especially well in the car deadlift where she completed 16 reps.
Despite being unable to take the log press record, Delay won four of five events with the stone to shoulder and car deadlift being his standout events. This win secured a Strongman Nationals invite for Delay which he and Willburn will be looking to make a splash in later this year.
Both Delay and Kolodka would like to thank training partner Willburn for coming up to the competition to support them and taking a serious part in helping the organizers run the event. Delay continued his winning streak in Grande Prairie on June 18 winning five of five events at the first-ever “Peace Country’s Strongest” competition. After jumping up a weight class due to lack of competition in the under 90kg class, Delay was surprised at his success against the bigger athletes.
“This is the heaviest competition I’ve ever done outside of Nationals - every event was heavy from beginning to end and I’m just grateful to have gotten through it without injury. Watching everyone else struggle made me realize how far I’ve come. A couple of years ago I was that guy struggling for a couple steps or a single rep.”
Delay did a mixture of heavy static and dynamic events - at one moment going through an assortment of heavy, awkward items to be lifted overhead, and the next sprinting with 600-pound super yoke. Delay finished the day off lifting a massive 300-lb concrete atlas stone over a bar nearly as tall as his shoulders.
“This was one of the best run shows I’ve ever seen, with amazing prizes, an awesome crowd and incredible competitors - all of them putting on a show in both sunshine and torrential downpour throughout the day,” said Delay of the competition.
Delay thanked Kolodka for handling him at the meet and training partner Willburn who once again was there to support the team and help run the show.
“Joey is a powerhouse; if he’s not competing and breaking records he’s volunteering. We need more people like him in this sport. The competitions this year have been the highlight of my strongman career. Breaking a world record and winning back to back shows and having training partners Willburn and Leroy achieve significant success breaking records and snatching gold in their own right. I could not be happier we are putting this little town on the map.”
Delay is looking to compete one more time before Nationals with his biggest show yet happening in Shaunavon, Sask. on July 16 at the first-ever middleweight pro/am in Canada. Sporting top ranking pro and amateur athletes from across the country including the current world champion.
“I’m probably gonna get my butt kicked, but to be honest it will be an honour. I don’t mind going out on my shield when it’s against that caliber of athlete. I’m massively undersized for the weight class but it really doesn’t matter. I’m going out to represent our town and I’m going to make us proud or die trying.”
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