Williams Lake strongman Tyson Delay is looking forward to the 2024 season.
Delay and fellow athletes are planning to host Cariboo Strongest Show July 13 and 14 at home and some have signed up to compete there and in Kelowna on May 18.
“We are all putting our heads down and training,” he said.
Early December 2023, Delay competed at the Official Strongman Games, which were the worlds, in Charleston, West Virginia.
There he placed 25th as the strongest lightweight in the world out of 43 competitors from 36 different countries in his weight class.
“I did fairly well,” he said of his performance in the dead-lift, overhead press, carry-and-drag and frame carry. “I was OK with how I did because it was my first time at worlds.”
About 400 athletes competed in total across different weight and age classes.
“The weights were the heaviest I have ever seen,” Delay said. “The weights for the lightweight class were as heavy as the heavy weights for the heavyweight class here in Canada.”
There were competitors in his weight class of 175 pounds pulling 700-pound dead-lifts.
“It was a lot of crazy stuff. For myself and 30 to 35 competitors we were keeping an eye on each other and at pace with each other and struggling together and then there was the top 10 or 15 guys just destroying everything. They were wild. It was crazy to watch and extremely cool.”
Delay said he has been invited to go back next year.
Flying there proved to be a challenge because he struggled through a weight cut, he explained.
“I guess when you fly, your body retains water differently. I didn’t know that. I had a bunch of layovers and stressful flight changes but eventually made it and made weight.”
Crediting some old friends he worked with in the mining industry when he was younger for helping him with air fare, Delay singled out Colton Mcmann who was a big help.
“I am so grateful for that. It was amazing,” Delay said.
After the worlds, his recuperation took about two weeks physically and four weeks mentally.
“It was rough coming out of there. I was already burnt out coming out of nationals in October and went straight into preparing for the worlds.”
In October he qualified second in the U90 kilogram weight category at nationals.
Any businesses interested in sponsoring the July Williams Lake competition for athlete prizes is asked to please contact Delay.
As always, he thanked his training partners and also thanked his girlfriend Jamie Young for driving him to Vancouver to fly to the worlds.
