NEWS   Marius Pudzianowski Big Z Poundstone Magnus Samuelsson One hundred years ago... www.fortissimus.net Louis Cyr and Eugen Sandow Louis Cyr, backlift Claude Le Sauteur Ortmayer : Natural born stoneman Jessen Paulin : Man of stone Koklyaev : A master degree in strength Mark Felix: Hands of Hercule Sebastian Wenta : All-Around strongman Dominc Filou: A Force of One Andrus Murumets : The Estonian PowerMan Polski Mocarzu ! Louis-Philippe Jean :Heart of a lion Terry Holland: To be or not to be the strongest Arild Haugen: Viking Power on the rise Randall J. Strossen: Man with an Ironmind Stefan Sölvi Pétursson: Keeping the Tradition Alive Zydrunas Savickas: World Records Breaker Ervin Katona: A powerhouse from Serbia Agreement between Fortissimus & ASC Agreement between Fortissimus & AussiPower Agreement between Fortissimus & SCL

KOKLYAEV : A MASTER DEGREE IN STRENGTH It is commonly believed that the best weightlifter will never make it to a top spot in world-class strongman contests. Except for Paul Anderson and Doug Hepburn, both men having dominated the weight lifting scene in the 50's before becoming strongman's heads of the class, nobody else managed such a feat... until 2005 when Mikhail Koklyaev, the seven-time Russian National weightlifting champion, gave it a try and make it big. Micha, as he is called by many, has been raised with the game of iron. He was 13 when he started weightlifting. And 16 when he was awarded the title of Master of Spotrs of Russia. At 20, he was already entering his fifth year as a member of the Russian National team. And he kept piling on plates on the bar until 2004. When IRONMAIN conducted a poll to find out who should be invited to FORTISSIMUS (November 2007), Mikhail Koklyaev's name come out on top of a highly praised list, tied with Mariusz Pudzianowski   and Zydrunas Savickas. A clear indication of the value of the gifted athlete from Chelyabinsk, Russia (also the birthplace of on of the national Hockey League's best defencemen Sergei Gonchar). Micha's record speaks for itself. He won Russia's Strongest Man title four years in a row, got on the podium for each of the last three IFSA World Strongman Championships (2005, 2006, 2007) and did the same at the prestigious Arnold Strongman Classic, as he was right behind Savickas and Derek Poundstone at the 2008 Arnold's. Ask Poundstone about Micha and he will give it you straight: "Koklyaev is a formidable competitor. He will be a serious contender for the supreme title... and he is one likeable character! If the name may seem a little hard to spell, try "Micha". "M" like Master in Strength.   Go to top