Riku Kiri

Riku Kiri (born April 5, 1963 in Kotka, Finland) is a Finnish former strongman and powerlifter, best known for competing in the World's Strongest Man competition, narrowly missing out on capturing the title on more than one occasion. He has been referred to as: "the strongest guy who has never won the World's Strongest Man competition."

Life and career

The 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in), 145 kg (320 lb) Kiri is particularly noted for his static strength including a 300 kg (661.4 lb) single-arm deadlift at Brian Batcheldor's Strength Seminar in Birmingham in 1992 and an unofficial 302.5 kg (666.9 lbs) raw bench press at Brian Batcheldor's Strength Seminar in Birmingham in 1992 (both judged by David Webster, the organizer of the World's Strongest Man competitions). He squatted 440 kg in the Dutch Open strongman contest of 1995. He also bench pressed 290.0 kg (639.3 lb) raw in an official WPC meet along with many other records. At 19 years old in 1983, Riku held a World Record in powerlifting in the squat lift in IPF competition, 350 kg (125 kg weight category).