Nakonechnyy desires to be at 100% for his World’s Strongest Man debut.
Rising strongman star Pavlo Nakonechnyy has withdrawn from the 2023 Europe’s Strongest Man (ESM) contest. With the 2023 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) roughly a month away on the time of this writing, the Ukrainian athlete is selecting to try to get better from a knee injury to be prepared for his debut within the competition. The 2023 WSM competition is scheduled for Apr. 19-24, 2023, in Myrtle Beach, SC. The 2023 ESM is just weeks earlier, on Apr. 1, 2023, in Leeds, England.
Nakonechnyy suffered his knee injury on March 4, through the deadlift event on the 2023 Arnold Strongman Classic (ASC). The strongman tied with two-time WSM champion (2021-2022) Tom Stoltman for sixth place through the contest, while fellow young star Mitchell Hooper was the eventual ASC winner. The ESM roster, featuring Ukrainian countryman and defending champion Oleksii Novikov, will now soldier on without Nakonechnyy.
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Within the wake of Nakonechnyy’s withdrawal, the Giants Live organization revealed that 2022 England’s Strongest Man Paul Smith would take the athlete’s vacated spot. Shane Flowers will round out the ESM roster because the 14th athlete. The international competition features nine different countries in representation.
On the time of this text’s publication, here is the whole 2023 ESM roster because it stands:
2023 Europe’s Strongest Man Roster
Here is an outline of the events confirmed for the 2023 ESM:
2023 Europe’s Strongest Man Events
The 2023 ESM can be a single-day competition comprised of 5 different events. On the time of this writing, specifics haven’t been clarified on each event’s details. Information involving exact implements, weights, and potential formats may very well be disclosed within the near future.
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At age 25, per Strongman Archives, Nakonechnyy remains to be relatively latest to the strongman scene. While he’s been competing since September 2019, the strongman can have officially broken out along with his first victory within the 2022 Giants Live World Open. He followed that performance up with a fourth-place result on the 2022 Giants Live World Tour Finals, a fifth-place finish on the 2022 Strongman Rogue Invitational, and his sixth-place rating on the 2023 ASC.
As Nakonechnyy’s first WSM appearance nears, only time will tell how the ascending strongman heals and potentially shines in South Carolina.
Featured image: @giantslivestrongman on Instagram