StrongFirst Certified Master Instructor
The results for the Tactical Strength Challenge (TSC) are complete! As you might be aware, each year, StrongFirst puts on two TSC’s; one in May and one in October. While May’s TSC (Community edition) will highlight the gyms with the largest number of participants, October’s TSC (Competition edition) highlights the top performers in each division.
See the Fall 2021 Leaderboards (results)
The TSC is comprised of four divisions for both men and women. There are three events for each division, and the overall winner is decided by the lowest point total, which is accumulated by 1pt for each place finished in each event. The first event tested is the deadlift. Each participant, regardless of division, gets three attempts at a maximum weight lifted. The second event for the Women’s Novice Division is the flexed-arm hang. All other divisions perform strict pullups for their second event. The third, and final event, is the 5-minute snatch test. Both the Men’s and Women’s Novice Divisions, and the Men’s and Women’s Master’s (ages 50+) Divisions use a 20kg and 12kg kettlebell respectively. The Women’s Classic Division snatches a 16kg kettlebell, and the Men’s Classic uses a 24kg kettlebell. Finally, the Competitive Divisions use up to 20kg for women and 32kg for men, depending on their body weight.
Women’s Divisions
In the Women’s Novice Division, Serena Bedoy was the 3rd place finisher with 45 total points. Eimear McCooey placed 2nd with 39 points, and the overall champion was Kristi Hunt with 28 points. Kristi placed 11th in deadlift, 3rd in flexed-arm hang, and 14th in the snatching event. Event champions included Blake Clerke in the deadlift with a 350lb pull, Eun hee Jung in the flexed-arm hang with 100 seconds, and Teal Price in the snatch with 158 repetitions.
The women in the Master’s Division posted the lowest overall total points. Kim Cockrum placed 3rd with 15 points. With 11 total points, Traci Novak placed 2nd but was the champion in both the deadlift and the snatching event. She pulled 350lbs in the deadlift, and snatched her kettlebell for 150 repetitions in the 5-minute timeframe. Lucy Selway was the overall champion with just 7 points, placing 3rd in the deadlift, and 2nd in both the pullups and snatching events. Lydia Milton was the pullup winner with an amazing 15 repetitions.
In the Women’s Classic Division Anna Konecka placed 3rd with 28 points. Pav Johal placed 2nd with 25 points, and she also placed 1st in the pullup event with 17 repetitions. The overall champion was Valeria Done with 18 points. Valeria placed 1st in the deadlift with a 320lb pull, 4th in the pullups, and 13th in the snatching event. The snatching event was won by Mckennah Orth with 151 repetitions.
Wrapping up the women’s events are those in our Competitive Division. The 3rd place finisher in this division earned a 3-pack fundamentals video course for kettlebells, bodyweight, and barbell practice. The 2nd place finisher earned a spot at an All-Terrain ConditioningTM Seminar, and the overall champion received a free entry into their choice of a Strong EnduranceTM or Plan StrongTM Seminar. However, let’s begin with our event winners. Jenny Donovan won the deadlift with a whopping 405lb pull. Rebecca Rouse won both the pullup event and the snatching event with 24 repetitions and 127 repetitions respectively. For overall totals, there was no 3rd place finisher, because of a two-way tie for 2nd. The 2nd place tie goes to both Michelle Forlenza and Jenny Donovan. Michelle had 13 points, placing 2nd in the deadlift, 5th in the pullups, and 6th in the snatching event. Jenny also had 13 points with a 1st in deadlift, 2nd place finish in pullups, and 10th place finish in the snatching event. The overall champion for the 2021 TSC Competition Edition goes to Rebecca Rouse. As stated, Rebecca took first in the pullups and snatching events. She had an 8th place finish in deadlift, giving her a mere 10 point total.
Men’s Divisions
Switching to the men’s divisions, Jerome Lim placed 3rd in the Novice Division with 21 points. Jerome won the pullup event with 23 repetitions. Declan Flynn placed 2nd, overall, with 20 points, and Radek Cybulko placed 1st with 15 points. Erick E was the deadlift champion with a monstrous 575lb pull, and William Watch won the snatching event with 149 repetitions.
The Men’s Masters were led by Gareth Doody who had just 6 points. Gareth took 1st in the deadlift, pulling 440lbs, 2nd in the pullups, and 3rd in the 5-minute snatch test. Moose took 2nd overall with just 9 points, and Christophe Beviere was the 3rd place finisher at 16 points. Stéphane Veyrier won the pullup event at 22 repetitions, and Eric Palmer won the snatch test with 139 repetitions.
In the Men’s Classic Division, Lukasz Wichowski placed 3rd overall, and also won the snatch test with 145 repetitions. Alec Schmitt won the deadlift with a huge 600lb pull, and Sebastian Stepnowski won the pullups at 29 repetitions. There was no 2nd place overall finisher as there was a tie for 1st between Marco Cusimano and Andrew Soderstrom. Marco placed 13th in the deadlift, 3rd in pullups, and 2nd in the snatch test. Andrew placed 9th in deadlift, 6th in pullups, and tied for 3rd in the snatching event.
Finally, our 2021 Men’s Competitive Division event winners were Tim Barrett in the deadlift at 594lbs, Kyle Kowalczuk in the pullups with a record setting 40 repetitions, and Piotr Marciszewski won the snatch test with 139 repetitions. Piotr’s snatch test was a tie for the 2nd best performance in TSC history! Only Gintas Zilinskas has performed more, with 141 repetitions. Ironically, these three men were also the top three overall performers. Once again, there was no 3rd place finisher as there was a tie for 2nd place between both Piotr and Tim at 10 points each. Kyle was the overall champion with 8 points. Kyle placed 3rd in the deadlift, and 4th in the snatch test.
Once again, congratulations to all participants! Thank you to all participants, hosts, judges, and spectators for making this event exciting. A special thank you to Ryan Toshner for all of his behind the scenes work in making this event run smoothly. We just wrapped up our post-TSC conference call and are very excited about the future of the TSC. We look forward to recognizing both you and your facility in May and seeing your name on the leaderboard in October of 2022!
