Jyrki Rantanen, who describes his role as being “the official for international relations concerning Strongest Man in Finland,” told IronMind that there would be “big improvements” for the national championships this year.

Rantanen said the contest is scheduled for June 1–2 and “there’s now the opportunity for at least 8 athletes to go forward to international competitions like The World´s Strongest Man Experience™ , Arnold Amateur World Championships, etc. from the show and also maybe the first time ever in strongman history, one of the awards is that the winners from each class will get their own page on the association’s webpage where they can have their own sponsors.

“We think that it´s time for taking more care of the athletes and the best way to start is to support them to get visibility for their local sponsors and that way they can get a better opportunity to have support for their own life and career.

“The competition will be filmed for the national channel YLE and it´s held in Turku City, next to the famous Aura river,” Rantanen said.

“You were there some 7–8 months ago, when we discussed about going more to international co-operation and bringing back the fame the competition once had,” Rantanen said, referring to Randall Strossen’s most recent 48 hours in  Finland.  “I think we have done more than that and there´s more to come.


“To offer equal opportunity to everyone competing we are announcing the events on January 31, which is over four months prior the contest.  We also have a contract with national channel for upcoming years along with some long sponsor deals so we can really focus on developing the greatest, oldest show in the country to be even brighter star in strongman/woman sky.”
 
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