Monrovia — Liberia's Strongest Man Thomas Soko Benjamin who goes by the Stage name (No Fear) will be in action on this Friday March 3,2023 in the Arnold Schwarzenegger Strongman event.
NO Fear who won the 2022 Liberia Strong Man championship in December will go down in history as the 1st Liberian to ever compete in the Arnold Schwarzenegger Strongman event.
The Arnold Strongman Classic is an annual competition featuring strength athletes from all over the world to determine who is the Strongest Man in the World.
The competition was created by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jim Lorimer and Terry Todd, and is an offshoot of the Arnold Sports Festival which takes place annually in Columbus, Ohio, USA.
The competition that involves several strength category will take place from March 2-5 2023 in Columbus Ohio in the United States of America.
The Liberian Champion has been in the United States for the past weeks to adapt to the environment.
According to the organizers Benjamin will compete in the amateur category and will go against Shane Darrow, Philip Brinkman, Reed Tompkins, Benjamin Eisenmemger all of the USA David Kent of England and Paul Mwanza of Jamaica.
The Liberian champion participation in the competition was made possible after the founder of the Liberia Strongman competition Junda Morris convince the Arnold Schwarzenegger strong man event to give the West African nation the opportunity to showcase its champions to the world.
Madam Morris told FrontPage Africa that having Liberia compete in such international competition is great for the sports and an opportunity to open doors for Liberia Fitness Industry.
"We are hoping that No Fear competes at a high level. We will also use this opportunity to network with various counties competing and try to network with international fitness brands," Junda Morris disclosed that No Fear will participate in the 231 Max Kg Category.
"This is an amateur elite event. In International Strongman if you are not a pro and don't have pro card you don't compete for cash. You get Medals. We are fighting for him to earn his Pro Card, then he will be considered top in the World. This way he will get paid to attend events and compete for the cash prize Iron Baby and the rest,"
"If Liberians start to support the sports we can have Liberia as the leader in Africa Strongman. We will be able to see athletes compete in the Olympics and around the world." The Passionate Junda Morris told our sports desk.
ABOUT THMOAS SOKO BENJAMIN, AKA, No Fear.
Thomas Soko Benjamin, AKA No Fear, born in Clara Town, Monrovia on March 13, 1988 is a career mechanic who developed love and passion for weight lifting sports in 2018.
He was inspired by Mr. Leo Miller a gymnasium coach in Lion's Heart gym in Slapway community, Monrovia in 2018, and since then he had made the gym his best friend.
In the early stages of his new gym lifestyle he had a tough competitor in the middle weight class whom he used as a motivation to excel in his new hobby. With persistency he surly became the champion of the Lion Heart gym middle weight class over his tough competitor, Sam Warrs after one year in early 2020 and since then it became his dream to one day become Liberia's strongest man. Based on that motivation he named himself No Fear.
Motivated by his new achievement he began to explore other gyms in Monrovia to experience more competitions to improve his ability in order to reach his goal.
At some points along the way, it became difficult to balance his mechanic career with his gym life, especially in times that he was unable to afford supplements. However, he never gave up. he kept his mind fixed to his goal and began to win other local gyms weight lifting competitions and grew more fans and followers until one-day in August, 2021 when he was training in UNMIL Gym in Monrovia that he finally met the road to his goal.
It was a moment that Mr. Emmanuel Payne, the President of the Liberia Strongman Federation visited the gym to give awareness on the registration process for the 2021 Liberia Strongman Competition. That was the moment that Thomas Soko Benjamin, AKA No Fear had longed for.
He competed among 10 giants in the national strongman competition that year and came second place with Ibrahim AB Mensah winning the championship in 2021. His motivation grew stronger and he challenge himself that comes 2022 he must win the national strongman championship.
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In November 2022, the Liberia Strongman Federation was opportune to register three athletes to represent Liberia in the Africa Strongest Man Competition. Of course No Fear being Liberia's second strongest man was selected to go along with the champion Ibrahim AB Mensah and the third runner up Terry Harris, but unfortunately, and fortunately, only No Fear Represented Liberia in South Africa and flagged 6th in the Africa strongest men competition. His position qualified him to participate in the world strongest competition in December, 2023.
Maintaining the commitment, 35-year-old Thomas Benjamin AKA No Fear in five years achieved his goal by winning the national 2022/2023 Liberia Strongest Man championship title on December 23, 2022.
Progressively, he has been invited and issued visa to participate in the Arnold Classic Strongman event in Columbus, Ohio, USA on March 27, 2023, while he gears up for the world strongest in Miami, USA, in November, 2023.
