The 40-kilogram dumbbell looked suspiciously feather-light when Stewart Cook sent it heaven-bound with one arm.
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If his previous competitor hadn’t just failed the same task moments earlier, few would appreciate just how easy he made it look.
The Louth Park man won the novice over-90 kilogram category in the Hunter’s Strongest Man Competition at Pokolbin on Sunday.
“This is something I’ve never done before,” the truck driver said.
“You can’t practice for this.”
Forty-seven men and women took part in the inaugural Hunter event in which competitors must complete a series of challenges designed to test strength and stamina.
In one of them Cook had to carry 110kg as far as he could, the weight suspended from a bar, on a pivot point.
“It just sapped me,” he said, of the aptly named Conan’s Wheel.
Then there was the 280kg deadlift.
“[The event] was hard on the arms, legs, back and heart,” he said.
Aberglasslyn’s Leroy Scott placed fourth in the men’s under 105kg section and faced many of the same challenges albeit under more weight.
The long race, the more gruelling of the tests, included a loading race where participants carried a 100 kilogram sandbag and an 80 kilogram stone as quickly as possible through the track.
“I had never done that before – it was pretty tough,” Scott said.
Hunter Strongman promoter and Largs resident Kurt Livens was rapt with the event.
“The local support has been fantastic,” Mr Livens said.
Forty-seven men and women took part and many brought vocal support.
“The surprising thing is the number of women especially this being the first in the Hunter,” Mr Livens said.
The event at Pepper Tree winery was a qualifier for the 2016 NSW Strongest Man and Australia’s Most Powerful.
