Photo Credit: Joe Fox

By Shane Clausing

Armwrestling gold

Gold for Woking’s Gary MacDonald at World Arm Wrestling Championships

Dec 11, 2019 | 1:04 PM

Gary MacDonald of Woking, Alberta won a gold and silver medal at the 2019 World Armwrestling Championships this past weekend in Rumia, Poland. Gary won gold in the Senior-Grand-Masters 75 KG left hand division, defeating John Shipes of the United States.

Macdonald also won a silver medal in the right arm Senior-Grand-Masters 75 KG division. He ended up losing out on fouls, getting two fouls per match in arm wrestling. Two fouls makes an automatic loss.

“This is our second world championship for the club. There are 18 people who play for team Canada and a champion is ours,” said Doug Curtiss, the Past President of the Northern Twistmasters Armwrestling Club.

MacDonald has been armwrestling out of the Northern Twistmasters club in Grande Prairie since the club began in 1998 and has been in the sport for over 20 years. He has participated in the world championships seven times since 2001.

To qualify for the world championships is an interesting journey, you start off participating in provincials, where you don’t need to place, but you need to at least participate.

In order to make the Canadian world championships team, you must participate in nationals for your division and finish in the top 2 at nationals. The top two in each division go to the world championships.

In the world championships there are over 30 countries that participate.

This past year the Canadian Armwrestling National Championships were held at the Ice Palace in West Edmonton Mall where over 550 people from across the country came and competed.

“You can bet that a lot of people in eastern Canada couldn’t make the trip because it was so expensive. We set the attendance record in Edmonton which is crazy because most of our population are from eastern Canada.” Curtiss told EverythingGP.

Another local armwrestler also participated in the world championships.

Joe Fox of Grande Prairie is also a member of the Northern Twistmasters club and made it to the international circuit. Five years ago, he began to armwrestle competitively, and began tearing up the weight classes in the Alberta circuit. He won his first national title in 2018 and defended his title this past year in Edmonton.

Joe placed 10^th in the world championships. He lost out to another Canadian from a team in Cranbrook, B.C.

Next year, Gary and Joe will look for another opportunity to participate at the world championships, and their journey will begin right in their own back yard.

Next year the Northern Twistmasters Armwrestling Club will be hosting provincials right here in Grande Prairie. Winnipeg will host nationals next year. Joe talked about how excited he and the club is to be hosting such a major event.

“It’s awesome just to open up they eyes of people in Grande Prairie and get them exposed to the sport. It’s going to draw in a lot of top pros from all over Alberta. It’s probably going to be one of the biggest tournaments we’ve had in the last 10 years. We’re trying to line up a couple of big match ups too and make it an event. On the Saturday of provincials, we will have an open tournament to all amateurs for whoever wants to come and compete.”

Provincials will be held during the May long weekend from May 16-18.