World Strongest Man athlete Eddie Hall revealed he nearly died after completing his latest deadlift world record attempt.
The Englishman competed in Saturday’s World Deadlift Championship and attempted to break the existing 465kgs record that he and two others set at the weekend with an incredible 500kgs deadlift.
The 28-year-old Newcastle born strongman became the first man to lift half a tonne – equating to 1,102lbs or 80st – at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, but he immediately collapsed afterwards and revealed that he had burst blood vessels in his head.
"That nearly killed me,” Hall said in a video chat for the Yorkshire Evening Post afterwards. “The pressure on my body was surreal. I passed out after. I had nose bleeds. It's not healthy doing something like that.
"But I've done it. I'm sure it will be in the history books for a very long time.”
Hall believes that the mark will stand for the foreseeable future – if broken at all – after he upped the ante by a hefty five stone. Earlier in the day, Hall and two others had already broken his existing record, but Hall couldn’t help but up the ante. However, despite claiming that he doesn’t want to do such a lift again, he admitted that if anyone breaks his feat he would be tempted to try and lift even heavier.
"I don't want to do it again but if it comes to the point where somebody breaks it, hell...I may just do,” Hall added.
"It's that great feeling, like the first man on the moon, the first man to run a mile in under four minutes. And now I'm the first to deadlift half a ton. It's history and I'm very proud to be a part of it.
"The World's Strongest Man title is my dream. And I will keep pushing the limits until that happens. It's going to happen."
Hall finished fourth in last year’s World’s Strongest Man event, which was won by Brian Shaw of the United States, and he has set his sights on challenging the top three of Shaw, Zydrunas Savickas and Games of Thrones star Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson by winning his first world title.
Bjornsson, who plays The Mountain in the hit TV series and is affectionately known as Thor, lost his crown as Europe’s Strongest Man after he was beaten to the title by 33-year-old Englishman Laurence Shahlaei.
