04 Aug 2019

Ahmed Abouelela has been crowned Botswana’s strongest man. The Maun-based Egyptian made light work of the competition by storming to victory in his qualifying group before winning the truck pull with a time of 16 seconds and loading race in the final obstacles in his way to the podium.

A record-breaker in his own right, Abouelela beat five other strongmen to clinch the championship for a second successive year. He was quick to stamp his authority in the opening challenge, recording 12 reps of the overhead lift proving that he is in the competition to win.

The writing was on the wall from the second obstacle that the Egyptian giant was up to defend his title, as it took him 16 seconds to complete the truck pull challenge, a time which gave him an early lead and placed him as the hot favourite.

Every event is designed to push the strongmen to their limits, challenging not only their physical strength, but their agility and mental toughness too, and Abouelela completed all the obstacles with ease and perfection.

Following a dominant performance in most obstacles, he, however, met his match in the tyre flip and farm walk challenge as he came second to upcoming youngster, Omphile Phokoje.

Even though the Egyptian has represented Botswana in Africa’s strongest man competition in 2016, 2017 and 2018 finishing eighth, seventh and third respectively, his eyes, he said, were now set on representing Botswana at the World Strongest Man competition next year.

“The world strongest man competition is more than just brute force, it is also about stamina, skill, tactics, training and strategy, and my next huddle is to compete in the Arnold Strongman Classic which will automatically catapult me to world strong man competitions,” said Abouelela.

Abouelela, who is also a bodybuilder of repute, applauded the organisers for giving adrenaline junkies like him a platform where they could challenge their strength and pleaded with the public to take bodybuilding as another way of earning a living.

 “Bodybuilding exercise like any kind of fitness routine should include a combination of cardiovascular exercise, core work and weight training in order to be most effective.

But for bodybuilders, exercise of this kind is taken to the next level with a focus and intensity that helps them achieve their significant physical goals,” he said.

Finishing second in the competition was Kabo Monnathebe with 13 points while Omphile finished third with 14 points. Kenneth Simon finished fourth with 15 points followed by Pako Letamo with 25 points. ENDS