Competitor looks to improve game

by Kris Svela

FERGUS

Norwegian Geir Standal is an admitted heavy weight.  

The former world's strongman competitor who turned to highland games competition, scored  a sixth place in the worlds highland competition at  the weekend Fergus Scottish Festival and Highland Games. That is a considerable improvement over the 13th spot he placed in when he first competed at the Fergus games in 2010.

“He’s really improved,” games president Warren Trask said. “His numbers have greatly improved.”

“My background is powerlifting and strongman,” Standal, who comes from Florø, Norway’s most westerly community near Bergen,  said during a break in the  weekend competition.

In the strongman competition he has scored a second in the world competition, but decided to switch to highland competition when injuries took too much of a toll on his 145-kilogram frame.

“I did that (strongman) for eight years and I got so many injuries I had to quit,” Standal, who also competed on the Norwegian Judo national team member, said.

He has always competed in heavy events and tried to outdo himself from contest to contest.

“It’s like you have competition with yourself,” he said of the goals set no matter what competition he is in. “You go to training and you know you’ve lifted 200 kilos and the next competition you want to lift more and if you lift one kilo more you know you are getting stronger.”

“This highland games is the most fun,” he added, referring to the local games.

When he switched to highland games competition, he hooked up with Trask who brought him over to compete in 2010 and again this year.

“I got an invite to Fergus in 2010,” he recalled. “My first year with the highland games I qualified for the world championship, so I met Warren.”

Standal also likes the competitors in his class who are always willing to give advice on how he can improve his game.

“My worst event is the weight over distance. People do two spins before they throw and I only go one,” he said. “I don’t have the technique yet.”

He noted the local games also give him more of an opportunity to train compared to what is available in his home country.

 “I had a problem with some of the events. I’m a slow learner and my body is too big,” he joked.

The festival also gives the Norwegian ample time to practice and improve his skills at the competition level, at an event that attracts thousands rather then the few hundred who attend similar events back home.

“I have no place to train back home, while here I can practice in competition.”

Standal, who is an offshore oil worker, watches his diet while he’s on the oil platform and home. He eats six  to seven meals as day, including two power shakes and doees hard training three hours weekly.

He periodically does some of the strongman exercises to get “the adrenalin running.”

“I can still learn something,” he said. “I’m still motivated.”

He is planning on competing this September in a highland game venue in Germany.

August 17, 2012