The New Zealand's Strongest Man competition was held at the Auckland Easter Show today, featuring Ngāti Pahauwera's Rongo Keene who has recently returned from competing in the Arnold Classic.
A battle of the biggest and the toughest. The mightiest of men descended upon Auckland's ASB Showgrounds in all of their glory to compete in the two day National New Zealand Strongman competition.
International champion Rongo Keene from Ngāti Pāhauwerasay this type of sport requires skills across the board, “To win a strong man comp you have to be strong across the board you can't just have one major lift so its going to be very demanding and there'll be some very sore bodies by the end of this comp.”
International Strongman champion Rongo Keene recently took out the Arnold Classic Australia. Rongo, who is based in Perth but is home for the weekend, says it's good to see the sport growing.
“It's good that the sports strong man has grown in NZ and it's a whole group of new faces which is awesome for the sport and for NZ to start bringing up the new comers of the sport so it’s really great,” says Keene.
This is Bruce Fatato'o's first time competing in the nationals, Bruce who only started competing in Strongman last year says it's not for the average Joe.
Bruce Fata To’o from Samoan and Tonga says, it’s a specialised sports, “I like that not anybody can do it, you have to train really hard, and it’s not the average Joes type of sport. It’s good.”
It's a strict diet of protein, protein and more protein for these strong men. However Rongo says there will be plenty of time this weekend for chocolate eggs.
