On August 28, American powerlifter, LeRoy Walker, completed a 114kg (250 pounds) strict curl, setting a new world record. However, this record is already contested within only 24 hours, as Russian athlete, Nizami Tagiev, claims to have surpassed Walker with a 115kg (253 pounds) curl.
LeRoy Walker’s Amazing Curl}
At the recent Johnnie O Jackson classic, LeRoy Walker beat the previous strict curling world record of 133.5kg (249 pounds), set by Denis Cyplenkov. Walker succeeded to lift 114kg on his third attempt after failing twice to curl 117kg (259 pounds).
Despite initial concern that the bar had been misloaded and the weight was miscounted, Walker’s record was certified by the officials at the National Powerlifting Committee.
Yet within the very next day, the strict curl world record was already contested again, this time by Nizami Tagiev at a local strength competition in Moscow.
While claims of a 115kg strict curl have circulated, Tagiev writes in the caption of his Instagram post calling out Walker to have curled 110kg (242 pounds). Regardless, he respectfully contested Walker’s record on the grounds of dubious form and conditions, stating:
The elbows are bent too much, the assistants serve the barbell, the grip is narrow, the wall is narrow, honestly, I have a lot of distrust of the weights on the barbell.
Tagiev went on to challenge Walker to a strict curl competition at the 2022 Arnold Classic. Walker responded to the call out in an Instagram comment, where he defended the legality of his lift and accepted the conditions of the challenge.
He ended his comment by raising the stakes of the competition and declared “I will lift over 120KG at the Arnold in 22”, a feat never before done in the history of strict curling.
While the strict curl world recorder holder is currently ambiguous, it is clear that this year’s Arnold Classic will be an epic confrontation between two great athletes.
If Tagiev can replicate his alleged 115kg curl on an official stage, the Russian strongman will clinch the title. However, if Walker can live up to his prospective 120kg strict curl even the world record weight won’t be enough to keep the title as the world’s strongest strict curler.
