World Strongman

Formation	2003
Type	Sports federation
Headquarters	Dubai, UAE
President	Vladimir Burdun (UAE)
Website	World Strongman

The "World Strongman" International Union of associations and clubs (old name World Strongman Federation - "WSF") ("WSM") is a worldwide organization within strength athletics, founded by Vlad Redkin, a prominent figure in the history of the International Federation of Strength Athletes and World Strongman Cup Federation. The WSF has organised a number of grand prix events and national championships featuring some of the world's leading strength athletes including 5 time World's Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski, Brian Shaw, Mikhail Koklyaev, Krzysztof Radzikowski, Tarmo Mitt, Kevin Nee, Stefan Solvi Petursson, Laurence Shahlaei and Mark Felix. The WSF's flagship programme is the WSF World Cup.

The WSF was set up in 2003 by Vlad Redkin following a financial dispute with the World Strongman Cup Federation. Following Vlad's departure, the WSCF ceased to promote events and effectively disappeared from the strength athletics landscape. In September 2007 an event in Khanty-Mansijsk formerly affiliated to WSCF and featuring its athletes was promoted by Vlad Redkin. This event had its name changed at short notice from WSCF to the Grand Prix of Khanty-Mansijsk (Russia) and in effect was the first WSF event. The reason given after the competition by Redkin was that a combination of financial reasons as well as concerns over WSCF's stated aim of forming closer ties with the International Federation of Strength Athletes led him to part company with WSCF. He initially planned to cooperate closely with Strongman Super Series in 2008, but in fact set up a new federation called the World Strongman Federation.^[1]

In 2008 the WSF organised a World Cup, it featured Mariusz Pudzianowski amongst others. However, the inaugural season failed to attract as many top tier names as planned and the WSF World Cup season was reduced in scale. By the end of 2008 the new federation was organising one off grand prix events largely based in the countries of the former Soviet Union, featuring fields of athletes confined to those countries.

In 2011 the WSF began to exert its presence globally once more and a WSF Asian World Cup event was organised, with Tarmo Mitt winning the event and also featuring the comeback event for Kevin Nee who finished third.^[2]

In August 2011 Redkin stated that WSF had an agreement between 8 countries in that time and more were being approached in order to once again stage a WSF World Cup. This materialised and in August 2011 the 2011/12 World Cup was begun.^[3]

In August 2022 by the decision of the ExCo WSF organization has been rebranded to the "World Strongman" International Union of associations and clubs.^[4]

In September 2023, Mr. Vladimir Burdun (UAE) was legally elected by ExCo President of the International Union "World Strongman" ^[5]

WSF World Cup

2012
The official logo of World Strongman Federation
Tournament information
Location	Varies
Established	2008
Format	A number of Multi-event competitions within an annual tour

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
WSF World Cup Irkutsk Irkutsk, Russia	Mariusz Pudzianowski	Elbrus Nigmatullin	Stojan Todorchev	Feb. 22, 2008[6]
Irkutsk Russian Strongman Cup Irkutsk, Russia	Elbrus Nigmatullin	Dmitry Kononets	Michael Sidorychev	July 27, 2008[7]

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
WSF BelAZ Strongman Cup Zhodzina, Belarus	Tarmo Mitt	Atanas Abrutus	Alexander Lapirov	Sept. 24, 2010[8]

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
WSF Asian World Cup Uzbekistan[9]	Tarmo Mitt	Alexander Lapirov	Kevin Nee	March 26, 2011
WSF World Cup stage I Riga, Latvia[10]	Atanas Abrutus	Tarmo Mitt	Jarno Jokinen	Aug. 20, 2011[11]
WSF World Cup stage II Batumi, Georgia[12]	Zviad Kajaia	Nikolai Hansen	Konstantine Janashia	Sept. 4, 2011[13]
WSF World Cup stage III Minsk, Belarus[14]	Tarmo Mitt	Atanas Abrutus	Oleksandr Lashyn	Sept. 10, 2011[15]
WSF BelAZ Strongman Cup Zhodzina, Belarus	Tarmo Mitt	Atanas Abrutus	Alexander Lapirov	Sept. 24, 2011[16]

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
WSF World Team Cup: Stage I	Ukraine Oleksandr Lashyn Sergey Konyushok	Estonia Meelis Pungits Peil	Ukraine Stahursky Tishecky	July 2, 2011[17]
WSF World Team Cup: Stage II	Estonia Tarmo Mitt Evgeny Shcherbakov	Belarus Sergy Vachinshky Alexander Lapirov	Uzbekistan Sergey Trubitsin Hamza Primov	July 9, 2011[18]

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Ukraine's Strongest Man 2011 Kiev, Ukraine	Oleksandr Lashyn	Victor Yurchenko	Oleksander Pekanov	October 14, 2011[19]
Hungary's Strongest Man 2011 Pusztaottlaka, Hungary	Zolt Szabó	Ákos Nagy	István Sárai	October 15, 2011[20]

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
WSF World Cup stage IV Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Krzysztof Radzikowski	Sergey Trubitsin	Mark Felix	March 30, 2012[21]
WSF World Cup stage V Hoofddorp, Netherlands	Richard van der Linden	Sebastian Davidsson	Konstantinie Janashia	June 10, 2012[22]
WSF World Cup stage VI Lviv, Ukraine	Oleksandr Lashyn	Viktor Yurchenko	Ari Gunarsson	July 14, 2012[23]
WSF World Cup stage VII Lahti, Finland	Nikolai Hansen	Antanas Abrutus	Jarno Jokinen	Sept. 9, 2012[24]
WSF World Cup stage VIII Denizli, Turkey	Rolands Gulbis	Bartalomei Bak	Tarmo Mitt	Oct. 16, 2012[25]

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Brazilian Strongman Open Championships Brazil	Eduardo Visciglia	Rodrigo Gigante	Rafael Crestani	Feb. 26, 2012[26]
Azerbaijan Strongmen Championships Baku, Azerbaijan	Vusal Mardanov	Mehman Faradzov	Hazrjad Magammedov	March 4, 2012[27]
Russian Strongman Championships Krasnoyarsk, Russia	Alexej Zolotuhin	Vladimir Kalinichenko	Alexander Lysenko	April 4, 2012[28]
WSF Russian Strongman Cup Vologda, Russia	Alexander Lapirov	Pavel Sprutsko	Denis Naigibin	June 30, 2012[29]
Elite Strongman: Moscow Moscow, Russia	Krzysztof Radzikowski	Stojan Todorchev	Mikhail Koklyaev	Aug. 1, 2012[30]

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
WSF CIS/Baltic Team Championships	Team Russia Elbrus Nigmatullin Vladimir Muravlov	Team Ukraine Oleksandr Lashyn Ivanov	Baltic Team Tarmo Mitt Antanas Abrutis	June 30, 2012[29]

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
WSF World Cup Stage I Tashkent, Uzbekistan	Sergey Trubitsin	Rafal Kobylarz	Oleksandr Lashyn	April 14, 2013[31]
WSF World Cup Stage II Aktau, Kazakhstan				April TBA, 2013[31]
WSF World Cup Stage III Hungary				May TBA, 2013[31]
WSF World Cup Stage IV Russia				May TBA, 2013[31]
WSF World Cup Stage V Netherlands				June TBA, 2013[citation needed]
WSF World Cup Stage VI WSF European Championships				June TBA, 2013[31]
WFS World Cup Stage VII Portugal				July TBA, 2013[31]
WSF World Cup Stage VIII Ukraine				Aug. TBA, 2013[31]
WSF World Cup Stage IX Turkey				Sept. TBA, 2013[31]
WSF World Cup Stage X Russia				Oct. TBA, 2013[31]
WSF World Cup Finals WSF World Championships United Arab Emirates				Dec. TBA, 2013[31]

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
WSF World Team Cup Poland VS. USA Poland				Aug. TBA, 2013

Location	Champion	Runner-Up	3rd Place	Date
Elite Strongman: Moscow Moscow, Russia				July TBA, 2013[31]

The first ever WSF World Strongmen Championship was held February 12–14, 2012 in Abu Dhabi under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan. The contest consisted of 25 athletes, after day 1 the field was cut down to 15 athletes, and down to 8 athletes after day 2. The scores were reset to zero after each day of competition, and the finals were held on Feb. 14, 2012.^[32]

• Tarmo Mitt (Estonia)^[32]
• Mark Felix (UK)
• Laurence Shahlaei (UK)
• Josh Thigpen (USA)
• Richard van der Linden (Netherlands)
• Nikolai Hansen (Denmark)
• Elbrus Nigmatullin (Russia)
• Antanas Abrutis (Lithuania)
• Oleksandr Lashyn (Ukraina)
• Aleksandr Lapyrov (Belarus)
• Kevin Nee (USA)
• Juanjo Diaz Garcia (Spain)
• Sergey Trubitsin (Uzbekistan)
• Rolands Gulbis (Latvia)
• Krzysztof Radzikowski (Poland)
• Vusal Mardanov (Azerbaijan)
• Adam Darasz (Hungary)
• Vladimir Rizov (Bulgaria)
• Stefan Solvi Petursson (Iceland)
• Farzad Mousakhani (Iran)
• Mika Jaakola (Finland)
• Alexander Mantserov (Russia)
• Marc Wells (Australia)
• Gregor Stegnar (Slovenia)
• Ricardo Nortt (Brazil)

Date: 12 February 2012^[33] Dubai, UAE

Position	Name	Country	Points
1	Krzysztof Radzikowski		96
2	Farzad Mousakhani		94
3	Laurence Shahlaei		84
4	Elbrus Nigmatulin		83
5	Alexander Mantserov		82
6	Oleksander Lashyn		81
7	Josh Thigpen		79
8	Mark Felix		76
9	Nikolai Hansen		75
9	Stefan Solvi Petursson		75
11	Tarmo Mitt		73
11	Vladimir Rizov		73
13	Antanas Abrutis		71
14	Rolands Gulbis		66
15	Kevin Nee		65

Date: 13 February 2012^[34] Dubai, UAE

Position	Name	Country	Points
1	Josh Thigpen		52.5
2	Stefan Solvi Petursson		51.5
3	Laurence Shahlaei		47.5
4	Krzysztof Radzikowski		47
5	Mark Felix		45
6	Farzad Mousakhani		42.5
7	Nikolai Hansen		42.5
8	Antanas Abrutis		38

Date: 14 February 2012^[35] Dubai, UAE

Position	Name	Country	Points
1	Krzysztof Radzikowski		35
2	Laurence Shahlaei		33
3	Josh Thigpen		27
4	Stefan Solvi Petursson		22
5	Nikolai Hansen		18
6	Kevin Nee		15
7	Mark Felix		12
8	Antanas Abrutis		0

The 2013 WSF World Championships are scheduled to be held in December, and will also be the finals for the 2013 WSF World Cup.^[31] The contest is scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates.^[31]

Originally, another event in Khanty-Mansijsk in September 2007 was affiliated to WSMC and featured its athletes. However, the promoter of the event, Vlad Redkin, changed the name from WSMC to the Grand Prix of Khanty-Mansijsk (Russia). The reason given was that after the competition Redkin was parting company with WSMC due to his concerns over WSMC wanting closer ties with the International Federation of Strength Athletes. He also cited that he had lost money with WSMC. He initially planned to cooperate closely with the World Strongman Super Series in 2008, but in fact set up a new federation called the World Strongman Federation.^[1]

Date: 8 September 2007

Position	Name	Country	Points
1.	Stojan Todorchev		49
2.	Tarmo Mitt		47,5
3.	Elbrus Nigmatullin		42
4.	Raivis Vidzis		36,5
5.	René Minkwitz		33
6.	Brian Shaw		30,5
7.	Christian Savoie		24
8.	Glenn Ross		20
9.	Mojtaba Maleki		17
10.	Karim Taleshi		17
11.	Igor Torlak		9,5

The new President of WSF Pradeep Baba Madhok quotes “Our distinct target audience, apart from strength enthusiasts, that we aim to give utmost priority to is children and the youth, making them well informed on the importance of nutrition and fitness at a very young age. WSF solely stands by the principal of strength and with that in mind, we hope to inspire the forthcoming generations to reach their dreams.”

Dubai World Strongman Championship

• World's Strongest Man