Eben Le Roux – Foshan City (China) International Strongman Comp

Australian Strongman Eben Le Roux speaks about the “Foshan City”


We caught up with Eben Le Roux about 6 months ago but just recently we heard Eben got an invite to an International Strongman comp in “Foshan City” China.  Therefore we thought it would be good to catch up with him and find out what he had been up to, and find out more about the Chinese Strongman comp.International Strongman Comp. in China

PB: You recently attended an International Strongman competition  in china, what was the competition? how did you get an invite? who else attended? 

Eben Le Roux: It was a comp in a city called Foshan City.  The comp consisted of 6 standard events,very light weights(In Eben’s Terms 🙂) which worked in their favour.

As you can imagine they had been training these specific events for months.  I got an invite a week before the comp so had no time to prepare .  There were 18 athletes consisting of 2 Australians ,2 Americans and the rest were Mongolian and Chinese athletes.

PB:  What were the events? and how did you go in each event?

Eben Le Roux: The events were:

  • Loading of traditional Chinese Yamboas 110kg to 150kgs,
  • 365kg Tyre Flips,
  • 130 Farmers Walk for 20m,
  • 300kg Yoke for 20m,
  • Power stairs 180kg, 200kg, 230kg
  • 350kg Conan’s Wheel.

PB: Where did you place in the competition?

Eben Le Roux: I don’t have the exact positions I got for each event but I was very competitive ending up in 7th place overall

It is always a huge challenge to go compete overseas especially with very little notice, then there is the long flight, little sleep, different foods and difficulty with communication.

PB:  I wouldn’t have thought that strongman comps are that big in China?  Are they? 

Eben Le Roux – Strongman comps are not big in China at all, they are still at the very start of learning what the sport is all about.  It is still a very communistic country and they still do keep to their own, but I must say that they are slowly reaching out to the world and adapting.

We explained to them that anywhere overseas they will come across much heavier events if they do go and compete internationally.

The government over there is encouraging the sport because there is a big interest over there and a lot of athletes are training very hard with strongman as their goal.

PB: What are you aims for the next year in strongman competition?

Eben Le Roux: My main aim for the sport is to get my bodyweight up because this is definitely my biggest stopblock (Eben is approximately 115Kg).   Then there is the FitX comp in Melbourne in March next year wich will be huge and will open doors for me if I should perform well.

PB: Building on my last question how do you intend to fix this issue and any others?

Eben Le Roux:    My plan to fix my weight problem is to look at my diet.

My overhead pressing still needs work, and I intend to work on a different program which will be consisting of more volume work.

PB: 8) Who do you see as your biggest competition in strongman in Australia?

There is a lot of new young blood coming onto the sport in Oz and I never underestimate anyone.

The heavier athletes always have a big advantage and like I said I need to be heavier.

PB: Whats been your greatest achievement over the last year?

Eben Le Roux: So far my biggest achievement has been that I did my first international (Foshan City) and also I have made alot of progress on my technique on overhead pressing.

PB: Any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Eben Le Roux: Haha and just to say this,I would love to invite those Chinese athletes over and see how they go when we don’t do light runs but maybe 450kg yokes and 180kg farmers! Haha

PB: Thanks Eben

Learn more about Eben Le Roux here.