Boyd Kelham was surprised when he ended up champion of the Sawridge Inn & Conference Centre’s first annual Riverboat Daze strongman competition. “I never expected to win,” he says.
In fact, Kelham entered only when it looked as if there might not be enough competitors otherwise. He says he was hoping for 16, but the event ended up with eight. Kelham finished first in just one event – the ‘duck walk’. He was second in the truck pull and the tire flip, placing third and fourth in two other events. His point total was 47, one better than Adam Gulliver, who won two events but was held back by two fifth places finishes. Kelvin Perry and Brett Baldwin were tied for third at 40 points.
In the first event, competitors had to hold a car battery straight out in front of them for as long as they could stand it. Brett Baldwin won it in a time of 44.50 seconds. Dave Doering was second at 40.19 seconds and Kelham was third at 36.21.
Event #2 was the ‘duck walk’, wherein contestants had to walk 120 feet while holding a piece of iron between their legs. Fastest in that event was Kelham in a time of 12.57 seconds. Gulliver was second at 13.84 and Mike Kennedy was third at 13.85 seconds.
The third event, the barrel load, called for packing four full beer kegs (at about 200 lbs. apiece) 60 feet from one pile of pallets to another. This was harder than it sounds and not all contestants were able to finish. Gulliver did, in 56.53 seconds. Perry finished the load in second place in 61.35 seconds. Kennedy was third in 66.0 seconds.
In the tire flip, they had to turn over a truck tire weighing about 290 lbs. three times. Perry set a blistering pace of 11.09 seconds. Kelham was second in 11.47 seconds and Baldwin just behind in 11.5 seconds.
The final event was the truck pull – requiring contestants to tow a Ford F350 pickup (and its driver) from a standing start over about 40 feet. Gulliver won that in 18.16 seconds. Kelham hauled the big red truck over the line in 19.84 seconds, with Brett Baldwin third in 22.12 seconds.
Kelham figures the strongman competition will draw more contestants, especially when people find out who the defending champ is, because they’ll want to knock him off his throne.

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