ANTONY INVITED TO COMPETE IN US CLASSIC
ANTONY Cosentino may not be the size of Hercules, but don't let his stature fool you. The Stirling resident can legitimately claim to be one of the strongest 20 men in the world under 79.5 kilograms after being invited to compete in arguably the world's most prestigious strongman competition, the Arnold Classic, in the first week of March.
While Arnold Schwarzenegger's muscles were mostly for show, Antony uses his science background to ensure his body is built for function.
ANTONY Cosentino may not be the size of Hercules, but don't let his stature fool you. The Stirling resident can legitimately claim to be one of the strongest 20 men in the world under 79.5 kilograms after being invited to compete in arguably the world's most prestigious strongman competition, the Arnold Classic, in the first week of March.
While Arnold Schwarzenegger's muscles were mostly for show, Antony uses his science background to ensure his body is built for function.
AS a trainer undertaking a Master’s Degree in Strength and Conditioning at Edith Cowan University, Stirling resident Antony Cosentino was naturally drawn to the strongman competition.
But this is the first year he has been able to undertake proper competition, with the introduction of an under 80kg weight class giving the diminutive 171cm strongman a chance to properly show his wares.
Mr Cosentino did just that, with his strength landing him the inaugural title of Australian Amateur Strongman Champion in the under 80kg category.
Now he will pack his bags for the US, where he will compete in the Arnold Classic at the World Strongman Fitness Championships.
While he believes he can beat the US competitors in one or two events, Mr Cosentino said making the finals would be a hard task.
“These guys are deadlifting into the 305kg plus category at 79kg,” he said.
“I might be able to beat them in one or two events, but when it comes to the deadlifts, I’ll get the job done but not as fast.
“In Strongman, if you don’t place in every event you won’t get to the finals so I’d have to be extremely lucky to get through, I think.”
As for his favourite strongman test, Mr Cosentino said he favours the Super Yoke, when he gets it right.
“With the Super Yoke, you basically pick up a big metal frame and see how far you can run with it.
“At the Australian Championships, I ran 81 metres in 90 seconds carrying 260kg, and that put me in first place.
“The problem was, I didn’t set the height properly, so for about 40 out of the 80 metres I was dragging the frame… if I hadn’t stuffed that up, I could have gone 100 metres, easily."
“There’s actually footage of the referee chasing after me, trying to catch up to me.”
But this is the first year he has been able to undertake proper competition, with the introduction of an under 80kg weight class giving the diminutive 171cm strongman a chance to properly show his wares.
Mr Cosentino did just that, with his strength landing him the inaugural title of Australian Amateur Strongman Champion in the under 80kg category.
Now he will pack his bags for the US, where he will compete in the Arnold Classic at the World Strongman Fitness Championships.
While he believes he can beat the US competitors in one or two events, Mr Cosentino said making the finals would be a hard task.
“These guys are deadlifting into the 305kg plus category at 79kg,” he said.
“I might be able to beat them in one or two events, but when it comes to the deadlifts, I’ll get the job done but not as fast.
“In Strongman, if you don’t place in every event you won’t get to the finals so I’d have to be extremely lucky to get through, I think.”
As for his favourite strongman test, Mr Cosentino said he favours the Super Yoke, when he gets it right.
“With the Super Yoke, you basically pick up a big metal frame and see how far you can run with it.
“At the Australian Championships, I ran 81 metres in 90 seconds carrying 260kg, and that put me in first place.
“The problem was, I didn’t set the height properly, so for about 40 out of the 80 metres I was dragging the frame… if I hadn’t stuffed that up, I could have gone 100 metres, easily."
“There’s actually footage of the referee chasing after me, trying to catch up to me.”
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By Liam Ducey, Stirling Times
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