One of Selkirk’s own won the Strongman Corporation Canada Amateur Nationals on Sunday in Moncton.
Andrew Langelaar, 27, of Iron Image Barbell Club, made a late surge up the leaderboard to win the competition, earn professional Strongman status, and receive his Circuit Hommes Fort.
He becomes one of only three professional Strongman out of Manitoba and the first ever to come out of Selkirk.
“It still hasn’t sunk in,” said Langelaar Thursday morning. “The competition was very intense. The guys I was competing with, they are all top-level dudes, all super strong. I knew I’d done well because I was sitting second going into the second last event then I won the last two events, the sandbag medley and the atlas stones. I won in Manitoba by winning the atlas stones so to do it again at Nationals was special. I thought I’d done enough to keep on the podium but I didn’t realize that by winning the event I’d won on points total. When they called my name it was kind of disbelief.”
Langelaar said that the moment the event was over, his phone was already being blown up by friends and family members who were congratulating him on his accomplishment.
One of the first things he did after winning was going over to a quiet area to call his mom.
The family had been hard on his mind over his training leading up to Nationals, as his grandfather had passed away only a couple of weeks before the competition.
He said training for Nationals was the most emotional training he had done. Once he sat down after winning, he said the emotions from the last few weeks hit him.
“To win there, I kind of just finally letting myself feel everything that had been welling up over those eight weeks. I honestly just went to the back and cried. It was a pretty good feeling just all the love and outpouring from the gym and friends and the community.”
Langelaar had been powerlifting for over ten years, but he began training for Strongman only seven months ago.
His friends persuaded him to start, although he was always fascinated by it, growing up watching The World’s Strongest Man at Christmas.
His sudden switch to Strongman has seen him go from winning his very first competition in June at Manitoba’s Strongest Man & Woman in Morris to winning Nationals on Sunday.
Now, with his pro card, he is already receiving invites to the top competitions in the world, including the Arnold Strongman Classic and the Official Strongman Games.
“It makes my season a lot clearer,” said Langelaar. My competition season is already booked up because of the pro status. For me it just means more opportunities. It’s not about playing on the amateur anymore, it’s now we’re up with the big dogs. It’s starting on the bottom and being in the circuit. Now I actually have to get strong.”
Langelaar will continue to train out of Iron Image, where he is also a coach to other competitors.
One of his students also appeared at Nationals, 17-year-old Ryder Joy, who was the first Manitoban to qualify in the Teen Division at Nationals.
Joy finished third at the event, reaching the podium in his first nationals.
As for Langelaar, he hopes to continue competing in Strongman until age 40.
Until then, he said he would continue his daily work routine, training for three hours four days a week and then getting eight to ten hours of sleep at night.
