21 Aug 2016

An adrenaline-driven final saw American national, Brian Shaw defending his title as the world’s strongest man in the just ended coheld for the first time in Kasane.

While other athletes favoured to win the coveted spot were impressive on certain physical challenges, 34-year-old Shaw won the title for the fourth time. 

The runner up, Mighty Thor nicknamed Shumba by the crowd, missed the opportunity to be the champion for the fourth time now. The Iceland national whose real name is Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson has been on the top three spot of the competition for the fifth year running. Britain’s strongest man, 28-year old, Eddie Hall came third.

Hosted in the land of wildlife giants (elephants), executive manager at Botswana Tourism Organisation, Julian Blackbeard, said it made perfect sense to bring ‘human giants’ to the land of giants. She added that hosting the event was an opportunity to market Botswana as a destination of choice as the show had great viewership running into hundreds of millions in the United States.

“We did not anticipate this much public support,” said Blackbeard referring to throngs of people who had been spectators during the competitions.

Executive producer of the WSM filming crew, Eric Smith was equally impressed about the crowds that had interest in the competitions. “This is by far the largest and the best crowd we have ever come across, from the energy, the enthusiasm and the level of professionalism displayed throughout our filming here,” he highlighted.

 In previous competitions hosted across the world, he said, filming locations are normally out of reach for the populace. Another plus for Kasane was that the weather was perfect for filming. “We never want the weather to be too cold or too hot, so this was great weather for filming.”

For residents, hosting such an event would be great for marketing their town. 

“This is a great marketing platform for us as a tourist destination and judging by the feedback from some of the filming crew and competitors, ,” said Sylvester Burger who is in the hospitality industry. Ends