Who's the strongest person in Southland? We might be about to find out
The first ever Murihiku Strength Challenge will be held at the 2023 Southland A&P Show on March 4.
In the politest possible way, Stacy McNaught says a “freak show” element has just been added to the historical Southland A&P Show.
Think Southland’s A&P Show and flashes of farm animals and agriculture machinery probably appear before your eyes.
However, McNaught and others have gone about putting together a strong-man-type event for the 2023 Southland A&P Show on March 4.
It’s been labelled the Murihiku Strength Challenge, presented by CrossFit Wild South.
The idea was sparked by the arrival of Callum McConachy in Invercargill.
McConachy, who is now a teacher at Aurora College, has won various strength events while living in the North Island and was looking for a place to train in Invercargill.
He found CrossFit Wild South which is described as a more “industrial” type gym than some of the more “polished” gyms around town.
It also already had some of the equipment on hand, such as the big stones, that McConachy required.
From that, the conversation started with McNaught, Cross Fit Wild South’s owner, about the prospect of actually holding strongman-type competitions.
McNaught says they’ve previously held truck pulling and partner carrying competitions at the Southland A&P Show. However, he approached the organisers to see if they could get some “big units” and some “normal-sized units” from around Southland and extend the competition.
They agreed, saying the competition can take centre stage.
‘‘It’s almost nostalgic having a strongman event at an A&P Show.”
“I hope there’s some interest in it, that’s kind of why they’ve put us in there, as the freak show,” McNaught joked.
They will put on two weight classes for male and females and are opening it up to anyone who might want to enter with some prizes up for grabs.
McNaught hopes to have about a dozen entries and is keen to get a good showing of females taking part.
“We have a passion, especially with our CrossFit methodology, seeing confidence grow in women when they see they are allowed to be strong. It’s not common in the fitness industry to allow that to happen.”
“Ultimately everyone should be able to express whatever fitness traits they want.”
There will be various elements to the competition, including the traditional stone carry, axel press, and more.
“We’ve got some natural stones and some Atlas stones, the natural stones are just big arse rocks, and the Atlas stones we’ve got go up to about 150kg.”
“It’s really quite traditional the stones. There wouldn’t be too many people down here [in Southland] who have seen that live.”
McConachy, in particular, is keen to see the sport grow in Southland.
There’s a crew now training at CrossFit Wild South on Saturday mornings to practice the movements and get a bit of coaching.
McNaught hoped the creation of events like the Murihiku Strength Challenge might spur some people on to keep training.
“Some people never really like being involved just for the sake of lifting weights; you’ve got to be able to do something with that strength.”
The Southland A&P Show began in 1862 and has lasted the test of time.
Just 1500 people showed up in 2018 but there has been a resurgence with almost 10,000 attending in 2020.
Sadly, both the 2021 and 2022 shows were cancelled due to Covid-19 but after a two-year-hiatus will return to Donovan Park in Invercargill on March 4.