A Thorold athlete has been dubbed the second strongest man in Canada – but says he won’t quit until he reaches his childhood dream: to bear the title “World’s Strongest Man.”
25-year-old Wes Derwinsky scored the placement in this past weekend’s 2021 Canadas Strongest Man just outside Quebec City.
“It felt good to come second but only for a moment. Second place isn’t what we strive for. First place is the only option,” Derwinsky told ThoroldToday in a phone interview on one of his rare off-days.
“World’s strongest man is the goal.”
It was when he participated in his first contest in Toronto a few years back that Derwinsky got hooked on the sport, that is centered around one thing only: raw strength.
In contrast to many other strength shows that focuses largely on traditional lifts, strongmen are tasked with lugging heavy objects into the air, or managing to pick up a solid ball of mass, and then put it up on a 56-inch platform.
The stones range from 310 lbs, all the way up to 420.
At this weekends event, Derwinsky managed to lift four of them in 28 seconds, placing him 4 out of 15 in that particular sport.
Another feat was his 685-lbs squat, which he managed to complete four repetitions of, begging the question what it feels like to have that kind of weight on your shoulders.
“Well, you hope it won’t feel like much and that it isn’t as heavy as you think. You just go through the motion until you start seeing more and more stars,” said Derwinsky.
The 25-year-old stands at 6’2” and weighs around 315 lbs. He maintains his strength through 3-4 training sessions per week, and chows down on between 5 - 8,000 calories daily, something he partly credits the Thursday pasta nights at Club Capri in Thorold.
“It has been a big staple of my diet.”
While Covid changed some of the premisses for this year’s Canadas Strongest Man, Derwinsky said the pandemic didn’t slow him down in his training goals.
“I’m pretty lucky and have a good setup at home, and I have been able to train at my parents house, and my grandparents garage, and through friends,” said Derwinsky.
“It isn’t really hard for me to stay motivated. I keep my mind on the end goal and always trying to get better. Covid only meant a longer break for us Strongmen, and gave us more time to improve on our sport.”
For any gym-goer, or aspiring fitness enthusiast, Derwinsky says the key is to set partial goals to eventually reach the big one.
“Everyone has got a dream, but you have to break it up in steps in order to get there.”
Continuing his training, Derwinsky will soon have to split his time between training and his new day-job that he is starting next week - as a St Catharines bus driver.
“It’s a good job, and it’s not too heavy on the body,” said Derwinsky, not concerned that he will have trouble fitting in the driver’s booth.
“At this past weekend’s event, I was probably in the middle, average of the guys who were there. I met a competitor from New Brunswick there, who is a year younger than me. He weighs 406 lbs.”
To see the full stats from Canada's Strongest Man, click here.
