Muscle men battle to be England’s strongest (From Gazette)

Muscle men battle to be England’s strongest

6:10pm Friday 22nd July 2011 in Leisure By Neil D'Arcy-Jones

THE area’s newest festival will be putting on a powerhouse programme of entertainment this weekend.

Valhalla Festival of Muscle and Power takes place at Layer Marney Tower tomorrow and Sunday, featuring a number of famous names from the world of powerlifting and strongmen competitions.

But, perhaps the highlight of the event will be England’s Strongest Man 2011 contest.

Twelve strongmen will be battling it out in the grounds for the chance to represent England at the UK’s Strongest Man final later in the year.

Among tests competitors will face will be the Farmer’s Walk, where they race along a course with a heavy weight in each hand, and the Atlas Stones, where they lift gradually heavier and heavier stones on to a platform.

Famous strongmen expected to be there to officiate include Geoff Capes, twice the World’s Strongest Man, and the current holder of the UK’s Strong-est Man title, Glenn Ross.

The Valhalla Festival, named after the Viking hall where slain warriors go in the afterlife, is being put on by Colchester businessmen and international event organisers, Scott Horton and Gordon Evans.

The event was due to be held alongside the Colchester Military Festival, but when that event was cancelled, both Gordon, of Colchester’s Zephyr Security, and Scott, who owns Hercules Gym, in Colne Bank Avenue, decided to go ahead with their own festival.

Gordon says: “Everybody in the team has worked so hard to make this a success and now all we need is the people to turn up.”

The festival is raising valuable funds for three charities; the British Limbless Ex-Service Men’s Association, the NSPCC and the event’s own charity, Help A Local Child Living in Poverty. Gordon explains: “A few of us had seen this documentary called Poor Kids and it really made us think about what we could do.

“We also wanted the festival to leave a legacy and this provided us with an ideal opportunity to help young people in our area.”

Rather than donating money, Gordon says he wants people to turn up with clothes, bedding, books and toys, which will then be distributed to children in the area, through the Colchester Community Voluntary Service.

Other big names lined up for the weekend include former arm wrestling world champion Rod “Rambo” Lenette, who has agreed to take on all-comers at the festival. Rod has triumphed despite battling against pancreatitis, diabetes and lipodystrophy, and hopes to inspire others. He won the British Championship just nine months after he had a kidney removed.

He says: “I was at Goojerat Barracks from 1987 to 1989, and have always loved Colchester. I went on to become double world champion – left and right arm – but had kidney failure in 2008, before getting my British title back. I want to inspire people to get through hardship and never give up.”

Organisers have also booked world champion power-lifter Andy Bolton, who has been described as “the most powerful man on the planet”.

Other highlights of the festival include Viking workshops and re-enactments, spear, knife and axe throwing, falconry and archery.

There will also be a Viking storyteller, a bouncy castle and face painting, as well as a bar, tug-of-war and live music. Local bands will include Saltdog, Surfquake and Los Palmas 6.